A Tale of Seven Years
by Ryuutsu Seishin Hime no Argh
Summary: It's been done before, but never like this. Told from Zelda's perspective, it is a story of a young girl's flight from evil, her growth within forced sanctuary, and the ultimate horror of loss of identity. FINISHED.
1. Past

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself...  
  
_Here it is, my next ongoing project. Oh, the things that come out of the mind of me...  
  
Anyway, this is quite a bit darker than I usually write. It's rated R just for the general darkness of it all, as well as for a particularly bloody chapter that comes later. This is not a happy story, so don't read it now and carp at me later for making it so dark, please.  
  
If you do read, please review. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and this time it might actually influence the story since I'm still in the process of writing it.  
  
And away we go..._  
_

  
*****  
  
A Tale of Seven Years**  


  


***  


  


Past  


  
I've tried to convince myself many times that this isn't a story worth telling, with little success. Because, as Nayru has constantly reminded me, it is a story worth telling. My future descendants want to have something, Nayru tells me, some record of the greatest queen Hyrule will ever have. I think that last part is stretching it a bit.  
  
In any case, Nayru's right about this story, about it making a good record of me. That's because it's mine, and no one else's. It's not Link's, although he's in it. It's not the sage's, nor the goddess's, nor Ganondorf's. It's a story about me- about my growing, and maturing, in a world where I had to go so far as to become another person simply to keep myself alive.  
  
My name is Zelda. Zelda Harkinian, present queen of Hyrule. My father, goddesses bless his passing, will forever be remembered as the king who let Ganondorf destroy Hyrule, while I will forever be remembered as the young princess who guided the Hero of Time in his quest to rid the land of the Black King's evil. If only they knew whose fault Ganondorf's rise to power really was.  
  
I'm not a young princess anymore. I've been queen of Hyrule for over a decade, since my father passed away, and I suppose I'm getting to that age when great leaders sit down to write about what they did for the world. This is not one of those stories. It's not a memoir. I'm not here to tell you about my life.  
  
I'm just here to tell a story. A story that spans seven years, that tells of a part of my life I'd rather forget.  
  
***   
  
Since before I could remember, my nursemaid was a Sheikah named Impa. Everyone in the kingdom always wondered why my father had placed me in Impa's care. The days when Hyrule belonged to the Sheikah were long gone; Impa was the last of her race. It was true that Sheikah had always guarded the Royal Family of Hyrule, but they were warriors. Warriors, seers, and worshippers of shadow. Terribly clever, crafty people, but not nursemaids.  
  
Impa certainly didn't look like a nursemaid. Tall and heavily muscled, with silver hair always pulled into a no-nonsense bun and shocking red eyes, she looked like she belonged in a castle stockade with a spear in hand, or perhaps a war-axe. In truth, I was frightened of her as a very young girl, until she invented a lullaby whose sweet, longing strains lulled me to sleep every night. I never knew my mother, but in Impa, I found a mother figure.  
  
The castle gossips talked her up and down, to no end. She was a Sheikah, after all- those strange, shadowy people who moved like ghosts and read your mind and walked through walls and all sorts of crazy things. I asked Impa once if it upset her, everyone always talking about her and insulting her people.  
  
"They're ignorant," Impa replied in her short, abrupt way. "They know nothing; therefore, their words are meaningless as the gabble of geese. You'd do well to remember that, princess."  
  
It became apparent that I was more upset by the gossip than Impa herself. I was more emotional than my nursemaid, and I thought it wrong for people to talk about her, even if they were ignorant. I began ordering them not to. When they listened, I realized that being a princess meant something. I had power.  
  
"You cannot change the world," Impa told me, when she discovered what I was doing. "Bets are ten to one that they still talk me over the moon when you're not around to hear them. Some things you can never change."  
  
Stubbornly, I clung to the belief that she was wrong- that I could change things, because I was a princess, after all. When the nightmares began, I saw it as my chance to prove myself.  
  
***  
  
Continued in the next chapter: Shadow 


	2. Shadow

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_I couldn't resist putting out the second chapter of this story, but I'll have to slow down after that because I only have about five chapters written, and I don't want to leave my readers hanging after those. What do you think of the story so far? Good? Not too dark yet, I know, but it gets there.  
  
If any of my readers here have been following my other Zelda fic, _The Triforce United, _I apologize but I have to slow down on that one too, because I still have another section or two to write and I'm facing a major writer's blockade. So be patient with me please.  
  
On with this fic. Please review.  


  
  
***  


  


Shadow  


  
I was never a timid child. I ghosted about castle corridors alone and peered into cold, silent places. I walked among gravestones in the palace cemetaries. I stood in pitch blackness and was not afraid- shadow, Impa told me, answered to her. It would not dare touch her own charge.  
  
But the nightmares terrified me. This was a cause of grave distress for me, because I did not know fear. Not until the nightmares began. Night after night Impa would sing me to sleep, same as she had done for years, and night after night the dreams would come to me, unbidden.  
  
They bore different images, but always the same message- a shadow was about to befall Hyrule, a shadow that even Impa could not keep away.  
  
_The shadow was a great, dark man astride a great, dark horse._  
  
At first, I kept the dreams to myself. Then, just shortly after my tenth birthday, I met the man of shadow.  
  
His name was Ganondorf Dragmire. He was the king of the Gerudo, those wild, law-breaking band of women who lived in the deserts of the west. The Gerudo always operated ruled by no one but themselves, obeying no laws but those of their own invention, and made their living by stealing from and terrorizing good, law-abiding folk. The Gerudo were sisters to rats and snakes; everyone knew that.  
  
But they still made plenty of trouble for the Hylian Kingdom. And so, when Ganondorf came to make peace, my father was delighted. He saw it as an end to his troubles; I saw it as an allegiance with the man who would bring about the destruction of Hyrule. For I was sure that my dreams were prophetic, and determined to do something about them.  
  
Only once did I try to explain this to my father, but he dismissed the prophecies as normal childhood nightmares. So I explained it to Impa.  
  
"I have never once seen that man until now, yet I began to dream of him months ago!"  
  
"Are you sure he is the dark man you saw in your dreams?"  
  
"Yes! Just look at him, Impa! He's evil! He's a filthy Gerudo-" At that moment, Impa's eyes caught mine, and held them. I swallowed hard. "I-I-Impa..."  
  
"You defend me, princess," Impa said, slowly and painstakingly. "You defend my people. But when you insult another race -of whom you know nothing but gossip and rumor- you insult me and my people. Why would you defend us, only to condemn others? I did not raise you to be ignorant."  
  
"Impa..." In my mind's eye then I saw myself- a stupid, gabbing girl no different than the gossips who insulted my beloved nursemaid. I saw myself as everything I had strived never to be, and burned with shame.  
  
"Listen to me, Zelda," Impa said, not unkindly. "This treaty with the Gerudo will not last- indeed, I doubt that it will ever occur. Your father is a good man, but a weak leader. He has barely succeeded in ruling his own kingdom. If Hyrule is to survive the perils ahead, its people must unite. Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, Kokiri, and even Gerudo must come together, as one. Your father will never achieve this unification.  
  
"But you, Zelda, have already shown the qualities of a strong leader. Intelligence, integrity, courage. Kindness, as well as the knowledge of when kindness should not be shown. And I believe, after today, you will have gained some wisdom- the wisdom to know that no group of people should ever be judged as a whole. Remember that, Zelda, and you will one day be the greatest queen in the history of Hyrule."  
  
Impa's words struck a chord in me, touched me in a way that left me breathless. I took her words to heart as I heard them, and never, ever forgot them.  
  
"Now," Impa said, "tell me about your dreams."  
  
***  
  
The day that Ganondorf was greeted in person by my father was the day I met the other figure from my dream. The boy of light.  
  
I milled anxiously in the courtyard adjacent to the palace's throne room. It was the best place for a young princess who wanted to spy but not be seen. A small window allowed me to peer within the throne room and see all that was happening, but I sincerely doubted that anyone, even Ganondorf, would look my way.   
  
Impa was nowhere to be seen. I knew she was around, though, keeping an eye on me. She never left me alone longer than she could help. Perhaps that was why I found it so surprising when, after spying for a quarter of an hour with no sign of Ganondorf, I turned impatiently from the window and saw a golden-haired boy standing in my courtyard.  
  
I made a choked little sound of shock, but quickly composed myself. "Who are you?" I demanded.  
  
"Link," the boy replied, but I was already seeing him...I was already seeing beyond him.  
  
I was seeing images from my dreams, images of a small, golden-haired boy with eyes the color of sky, accompanied by a white fairy, as this boy was. He was always carrying a great, shining emerald as well...  
  
"Is that a real fairy?" I demanded breathlessly of the boy, not giving him a chance to reply as I went on. "Are you from the forest? You _must_ be, I dreamed about you just last night! The Spiritual Stone of Forest...you have it, don't you? Tell me you have it!"  
  
Impa always said I was a bit too energetic for my own good.  
  
The boy looked stricken at the many questions I had thrown at him, but he quickly got over it. "You don't mean this, do you?" he asked in that careless way young boys have, though his eyes were so grave...as he pulled out the stone itself.  
  
"That is it," I said faintly, feeling as though I might crumple to the flagstones in a heap at any moment. Here every important aspect of my dreams, the dreams I knew were prohetic, were coming true- the appearance of Ganondorf, followed by this boy, Link, who possessed a Spiritual Stone.  
  
"Link." My lips curved into a shy smile. "I am Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. I have dreamt of you."  
  
Those blue eyes stared at me. "I..." he said softly. "I have dreamt of you, too."  
  
I closed my eyes happily. "Then our meeting is destiny! Just as I thought!" My eyes flew open. "Link, you know of the Triforce, do you not?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you know that it is sealed away safely in the Sacred Realm?"  
  
"Yes," said he.  
  
"But, Link..." I lowered my voice dramatically. _"Do you know where the door to the Sacred Realm is?"_  
  
He shook his head. "I don't-"  
  
"It's in the Temple of Time, Link. The Sacred Realm is sealed by the Door of Time, to be opened only by the three Spiritual Stones, and the Ocarina of Time!" Without pausing for breath, I added, "Look in the window, won't you, Link?"  
  
I stood aside, and Link merely stared at me for a few moments. He was a boy of few words, as I was beginning to realize. But then he approached the window and peered into the throne room. I watched him carefully, waiting for his reaction- Ganondorf should have arrived at the throne room by now. A moment or two passed, and then the boy's eyes widened and he stumbled back in shock.  
  
"What is it?" I asked with concern. "Did he see you?"  
  
Link gulped and nodded.  
  
"Don't worry," I said with confidence. "There's nothing he can do to us- not now. But listen, Link, there's something I must ask you to do."  
  
"What is it?" asked my young hero.  
  
"I know you did not come across that Spiritual Stone just by accident. You must know that danger is befalling Hyrule. You don't want to see your homeland die, do you? No one does. No one except for _him."_ I gestured savagely toward the window. "He wants to conquer this land, Link, I just know it. I believe the Triforce is in danger. If Ganondorf were to find the Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time, he would have all he needs to enter the Sacred Realm-"  
  
"Wait a minute," Link interrupted me. "How do you know that Ganondorf wants the Triforce?"  
  
I hesitated. "I-I can't explain it. I just- I just know, that's all." I took a deep breath. "The Ocarina of Time is safe. I have it in my possession. However...I need to be assured that the other two Spiritual Stones are safe. Will you find them and bring them back to me, Link?"  
  
He agreed, and I was filled with relief. "Thank you very much. Here." I dug around in my pockets for a spare piece of parchment and a quill, then quickly scribbled a note and signed it in my own flowing scrawl. "Show this to anyone who bars your way in your quest." I looked up and caught sight of Impa standing at the entrance to the courtyard, staring at us, and smiled to let her know that everything was fine. "That's my handmaiden," I said, pointing. "She'll guide you out of the castle so that you won't get in trouble. Don't be afraid of her."  
  
Link did look a bit apprehensive at the prospect of being guided by such a hard-looking woman, but he said his farewells to me and left the courtyard with Impa, his fairy trailing behind.  
  
"Farewell," I whispered. "And good luck."  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 3: Promise 


	3. Promise

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_Well I realize that for the last two chapters, I didn't have any disclaimer! So here it is now...  
  
I don't own Zelda or any of its related characters or concepts. All that belongs to Shigeru Miyamoto-sama. I am not worthy...  
  
Anyway, here's Chapter 3. Read and review, please!  


  
  
  
***  


  


Promise  


  
A month passed. I waited faithfully for a sign of my young hero, the one I appointed to find the other two Spiritual Stones. No sign came, but I did not lose hope. Patience, after all, was a virtue of a great queen.   
  
Little did I know that I was not to see him again...until after that night.  
  
I remember that night well. That was the night I composed the song that would later be christianed the Prelude of Light. I always had a talent with music -learning from the greatest music teachers in the kingdom had helped, of course- and composing music was one of my hobbies. Nothing too long; no great, echoing symphonies or that such. Just a tune here and there, a pretty little thing I made up within minutes.  
  
I sat on my bed with the Ocarina of Time in my hands, already dressed for bed, with candles burning to the quick on my nightstand. I was admiring the fine instrument, a royal family heirloom entrusted to my care just after my eighth birthday. Light flickered over its glossy surface, and I sighed with pleasure. Bringing it to my lips, I played a slow chord. The uneartly, pure music swirled through my bedchamber.  
  
I listened until I could hear not an echo, then brought the ocarina to my lips once more and played a quick string of random notes. The cheerful notes danced through the air, bringing a happy smile to my face.  
  
"Pretty," I said to no one in particular, and jotted down the notes I had just played on a sheet of parchment, referring to nothing but memory.  
  
I folded that paper and stuck it in a pocket of my nightdress, then sighed and decided I had better go to bed. I padded to the window to open it first, to let some air cool the stuffy heat in my room. I frowned as fresh air swirled past me. What was the acridic odor?  
  
Wood smoke?  
  
The door to my bedchamber flew open behind me, striking the wall with a loud thud. I whirled, a hand pressed to my heart, and saw Impa standing in the threshhold, bearing a long dagger stained with fresh blood. Her hair was mussed and a long, red mark was present on one forearm. Her expression was as calm as ever, but her crimson eyes held a gleam so savage that it took my breath away.  
  
"We must leave, Zelda," Impa said, her cool, calm voice cutting through my entrancement. "Ganondorf lit the south tower on fire and is now attempting to find you. Your father and his warriors are holding him off."  
  
_"What?!"_ I shrieked. "That's not- that can't be right! You must be mistaken, Impa!"  
  
"There is no mistake," Impa said, "nor is there any time to debate it. Come now, please."  
  
"But Father-"  
  
"Your father ordered me to get you out of the castle while there is still time. Let's go."  
  
My gaze darted wildly left and right, as if seeking some form of salvation. I was terrified, and I did not want to leave my home. My heart hammering wildly in my chest, I faced Impa and shook my head emphatically.  
  
"No. We'll stay here and fight Ganondorf. We'll...we'll help Father. That's an order."  
  
Impa's eyes flashed. Shoving the dagger into a sheath at her belt, she stalked to me, clamped an iron hand around my wrist, and literally dragged me out. Dragged me through corridors, down stairs, past shrieking people darting left and right. I fought her the entire way.   
  
It was not long before I realized that I still held the Ocarina of Time tightly in one hand, and shoved it into a pocket of my nightdress to keep it safe. "Impa," I said breathlessly, "the ocarina...the Sacred Realm..."  
  
Impa ignored me. Nothing would stop her now. She hoisted me up as we reached the Great Foyer, her blood-red eyes scanning the teeming mass of panicked palace inhabitants. Shoving, shouldering, and elbowing, she fought her way through the crowd, carrying me on one shoulder.   
  
A white horse, saddled and ready, waited for us at the palace gates. Impa threw me across the saddle and quickly mounted behind me. She kicked the horse into a gallop and we flew, away from the palace, down the road and through the castle town, pausing for nothing. Hoovebeats hammered like thunder in my ears. Rain poured down in icy sheets; jagged strips of lightning tore through the dark, stormy sky.  
  
Someone had thoughtfully opened the drawbridge. We raced across it and out into Hyrule Field. And then I saw him; the young boy named Link, the one I had ordered to find the stones, watching us pass with a mix of shock and horror on his face.  
  
Then I did something that confuses me to this very day. I yanked the Ocarina of Time from my pocket, twisted in Impa's hold, and threw it to Link. My aim was off -it landed in the moat- but I knew Link had seen it.  
  
Why did I throw the ocarina to Link? I'll never know the answer. It would have been safer with me. It would have prevented disaster. But perhaps I was guided by something higher, something that understands the intricaties of destiny far better than I ever will.  
  
Impa rode on, without ever once looking back. My precious ocarina now in Link's hands, I turned away and grimly resigned myself to an unknown fate.  
  
***  
  
At dawn I awoke not in my warm, comfortable bed, but in the jostling seat of a hard leather saddle, riding an avalanche of a horse. The sun was rising behind a blanket of gloomy gray clouds. Rain was still drizzling as it had all night long; I was soaked to the bone and freezing. Dropping the facade of princessish dignity, I began to cry. Who was around to see me? Only Impa, and she would never mention the shame of my weakness.  
  
Impa wasn't talking at all. Once this realization hit me, I twisted around with difficulty (Impa had an arm of iron wrapped around my waist) to look up at her face. She stared wide-eyed at the road ahead, lips pursed tightly. Two tracks cut through the grime on her face, evidence of small tears shed.  
  
She was actually afraid.  
  
This, in turn, frightened me. I was used to thinking of Impa as the strongest person in the world, afraid of nothing.   
  
Again, I began to cry. "You told me Sheikah are fearless," I accused through my sobs.  
  
Impa's eyes flickered to me; they were actually gentle. "For centuries, Sheikah had nothing to care about but clan. Even within clan, it was still every man for himself. Sheikah were above ties like family and friends. They knew better. But that changed with time, as things do. The day the Sheikah became the Royal Protectors...that is the day that Sheikah first knew fear."  
  
"But fearless, Impa...what is fearless?" I whispered. "How do I achieve it?"  
  
Impa looked at me very gravely. "Cut off every bond that you have ever made in your life," she said softly. "Know that blood is blood and death is death, and that both are a part of every living creature. Accept that you will endure pain and then die; move on from that acceptance. Be like shadow- still, ever-watching, untouchable. Only then will you become Sheikah, and fearless."  
  
We rode on and spoke no more, but under the gray sky that day I made a promise. A promise that if worse came to worse and I had nothing left, if blood and death were the only paths left to seek, I would do it.  
  
That day, with that promise, I sold my very soul.  
  
_I will be fearless,_ I promised myself.  
  
_I will be Sheikah._  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 4: Catacomb 


	4. Catacomb

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_Guys, I am really, really sorry but I don't know when I'm going to be able to update _The Triforce United_. I'm facing a huge case of writer's block. Everytime I sit down to write I end up staring blankly at the computer screen. I will try to get that story out soon for those of you who are waiting, but no promises.  
  
This story, surprisingly, is getting out very rapidly (as in one or two chapters a night). I just don't post very rapidly because I procrastinate (sorry again!). Anyway, here's the next chapter.  
  
Reviews and feedback are much appreciated, but please do me a favor and tell me what's good about the story, just so I know where my strong points are. Constructive criticism is always welcome (any way I can make this story better?), while flames and "you sucks"s will be laughed at.  
  
Enjoy reading!  
  


  
***  


  


Catacomb  


  
It was high noon when we reached Lake Hylia. The white horse was exhausted by the night-and-half-a-day long ride, but Impa had not dared stop for anything, not even to let me relieve myself. Sliding off the horse's sweatsoaked back onto my sore, stiff legs, I waddled to a clump of bushes to do just that. When I was finished I returned to Impa and gazed up at her with a cross expression.  
  
"I'm hungry."  
  
Impa, staring out at the lake with unreadable eyes, took a long time to answer. "There is no food," she said at last.   
  
"Not even for him?" I pointed at the horse, who was drinking greedily from the lake. "He needs it more than I do."  
  
"There was no time to prepare for our flight from the castle. Stop him, Zelda," Impa added, meaning the horse. "He'll drown himself."  
  
I scowled and went to the horse. Grabbing his reins, I dragged his head out of the water and led him over to a patch of long grass that he might like. He eyed the grass, then lowered his head and began to delicately eat. With that taken care of, I looked expectantly to Impa again.  
  
Now she was staring at the sky. She was really just exasperating.  
  
"I don't like this," she said abruptly.  
  
"Don't like _what?"_ I snapped, harder than I'd intended to. I couldn't help it- I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry, with nothing to eat. On top of that, I had no idea what had happened to my father or my kingdom, and was sick with worry.  
  
"The sky," she said.   
  
"What _about_ it?" I cried, utterly exasperated. "By the goddesses, it's just a few clouds!"  
  
Impa looked at me gravely. "The sky in Hyrule reflects trouble on its lands. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"  
  
I rubbed my eyes tiredly. Someone had mentioned it, but I was too tired to remember it now. "It rains all the time without there being any trouble. Farore's mercy, Impa, that's how the damn crops grow."  
  
"'Damn' is not a word fit for a princess," Impa said absently. "And stop calling on the goddesses. You know as perfectly well as I that this is _not _the rainy season. This time of year there shouldn't be a cloud in the sky."  
  
"Maybe...maybe it's just a fluke," I said hopefully. "Maybe Ganondorf was captured-"  
  
A bolt of lightning tore suddenly across the sky, and the air split with a booming crash of thunder. Impa and I both jumped.  
  
"I guess that's a no," I said weakly.  
  
Impa began to pace. "We must find out what's happened in the kingdom. I don't like these omens at all. If the time of darkness is upon us, I may be called to-" She stopped abruptly and glanced at me. "Well, never mind."  
  
"Never mind what?"  
  
"It's too dangerous to go north by any of the normal roads," Impa went on, ignoring me. "And the only other shortcut is accessable if you can hold your breath." She scowled. "For a long time." She stopped pacing and sighed. "I knew it would come to this. Well, I suppose it's the only way. Better disillusioned than dead."  
  
"Disillusioned than- Impa, what _are_ you talking about?"  
  
Impa glanced at me; an odd light shone in her eyes. "Follow me, Zelda. Leave the horse here, he'll be fine."  
  
"Are you going to tell me anything?!" I demanded, exasperated almost to tears.   
  
"No point in explaining." Impa had already begun to walk toward the wooden bridge behind the lakeside house that led out to an island. "You'll see soon enough. Come on."  
  
What could I do? I waved goodbye to the horse and trotted off after Impa as she marched onto the wood-and-rope bridge. I followed her carefully across it, trying to ignore the bridge's swaying in every little breeze and the sight of cold, dark water beneath me. When we reached the island and stepped onto solid land, I sighed in relief.  
  
This island was just a small thing, serving only the purpose of connecting another wood-and-rope bridge to the larger island out in the middle of the lake. That island had a large tree on it and a Triforce hexagon, marking it as a place blessed by the goddesses. There were rumors that the Zoras had built some kind of structure inside the island, but I had no idea if that were true.  
  
The island Impa and I stood on was marked only by a gravestone. It was so old and battered by the elements that it was impossible to read the name of the unfortunate creature buried in such a ridiculous spot.  
  
Impa stared at the marker for a moment, then went around to the back of it, curled her fingers into grooves in the stone, and pulled with all her might.  
  
"Impa!" I cried, shocked that a Sheikah of all people was desecrating the house of the dead. "Stop it! There's someone buried under that!"  
  
"No there isn't," Impa said, her voice strained with the effort of pulling. Her heels dug into the soft dirt of the island. "This was put here by my people...as a way...to hide it..."  
  
"To hide what?"  
  
But then the stone began to move at last, revealing an open hole in the ground beneath it that led into darkness. I stared, fascinated, as if it were the very mouth of hell.  
  
When the hole was wide enough to admit a body -I shuddered at the thought- Impa stopped pulling, stood straight, and wiped her brow. "In there," she said, panting.  
  
I backed away in horror, remembering just in time to stop myself that we were standing on a small island. "You're crazy, Impa. I'm not going into a grave."  
  
"It's not a grave," Impa said patiently. "It's a catacomb that extends throughout all of Hyrule. It will lead us safely north."  
  
"People are _buried_ in catacombs, Impa!"  
  
"Only the Sheikah, and them centuries ago. You won't see any skulls and bones in there, I promise. It's been too long."  
  
"But their spirits-"  
  
Impa laughed. "There are no vengeful Sheikah spirits haunting these tunnels. We know how to bury a person so that he or she will move on. You know that."  
  
I shook my head emphatically. Spirits or not, the thought of going in that place was just too awful to bear.  
  
Impa sighed. "We're going in there whether you like it or not, princess. It's either that or risk you getting killed, which I certainly shall not do." She crouched at the edge of the grave and carefully lowered herself into it up to her waist, then glanced up at me. "I'll catch you when you come in. And don't you even think of running away, because I'll come and drag you back- and then I'll make you grope around in the pitch dark. You wouldn't like that, would you?" With that said, she tucked her arms into her sides and let herself fall down into the grave, landing with a thump on the dirt floor below.  
  
I dropped to my knees and peered down into blackness, panicking. "Impa?!"  
  
"I'm right below you, looking up at you," Impa called. "Jump and I'll catch you."  
  
"Oh...all right." I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and hopped into the grave to land safely in Impa's arms. Once I was in, the marker that covered the grave rolled back all on its own, leaving us in utter darkness.  
  
I screamed.  
  
There came the sound of striking flint, and orange fire flared. Impa held a torch she must have found on the wall- I could now see the brackets where it had rested. Too terrified to speak, I stared up wide-eyed at my nursemaid.  
  
"There," said Impa. "Now we have light. Nothing to be frightened of in here, see?"  
  
She waved the torch around, and I could see in a quick, tentative glance that she was right. There were no bodies lying around, not even bones. Vermin and insects were nowhere to be seen; the walls and ceiling of the catacomb seemed to be made of flat stone, or perhaps hard clay. It was dry, too, and comfortably warm.   
  
"It's not so bad," I said quietly after a few moments. Not even an echo- the walls, I thought, must absorb sound.  
  
Impa nodded. "My people make good resting places for their dead. Why should a brother or sister have to sleep in a place that is cold and damp and crawling with vermin? Besides, the living used these tunnels as well." She set off down a passgeway and I quickly followed after her, not wanting to lose sight of her flickering torch.  
  
I did not bother to ask how Impa knew what her people had done centuries before she'd ever been born. "We know many things" was the only reply I'd get. Instead I asked, "Where does this catacomb extend?"  
  
"Everywhere. Under the lake, to the deserts of the west, through the forest of the Kokiri children, past the rivers, through the mountains, to the castle itself- and all over Hyrule Field."  
  
I swallowed hard. "Do you know where you're going, Impa?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
I suddenly thought of something else. "Impa! If we're traveling under Hyrule Field, on foot...by the goddesses, it takes a day to get across it on horseback! And we have no food or water!"  
  
"Not to worry," Impa said, with a flash of her fierce grin back at me. "The tunnels are magicked."  
  
"Magicked?"  
  
"Yes." _Doubtless Impa will explain in her own time- which means never,_ I thought, exasperated.  
  
We continued through the dark tunnels. Impa's torch danced off the walls, creating odd shadows that I didn't like. I had never been particularly afraid of the dark or shadows, but there was something strange about this catacomb. Bodies or not, the place reeked of old blood and old death- I felt it in my own being, shadows sweeping over me.  
  
I stopped walking and stood still in the middle of the tunnel, staring rigidly ahead. I did not dare look around. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw things, terrible shadowy things reaching for me, ready to take me. To consume me. Something crept behind my eyes, ensnaring my mind. Touching. Speaking.  
  
"Go away," I whispered, petrified.  
  
Impa halted and turned back to me. She walked toward me and took my hand in a firm, comfortingly solid grip.  
  
"Come on, now," she said gently. "We're almost through."  
  
I followed her, knowing nothing else- clinging to her like a very small child who had just woken from a nightmare. The shadows stayed back. They dared not touch Impa.   
  
It was a few more minutes before my nursemaid stopped walking and looked up. Lost in my fright, I didn't notice she had halted until I bumped into her legs- and then I, too, looked up. A patch of the ceiling seemed to be made of dark stone.  
  
"Open," Impa commanded, and the stone rolled away to reveal gray sky above. I gaped in astonishment, but Impa wasted no time. She seized me around the waist and shoved me through the opening, the scrambled up behind me.  
  
I stared around in amazement. We were in the graveyard of Kakariko Village.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 5: Village 


	5. Village

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_Okay, next chapter. Still writing, guys, and quickly. Good news for you, right? Except that I'm also writing a Jackie Chan Adventures fic and trying to finish _The Triforce United_...ack, I work too hard. ^_^  
  
Review please!  


  
***  


  


Village  


  
I panted as I trotted to keep up with Impa, who marched through the graveyard at a quick and unhalting pace. Under the sunlight, my fear of the Sheikah catacombs dissolved and was forgotten.   
  
"How did you do that?" I demanded in between breaths.  
  
"I didn't," said Impa. "That catacomb has been magicked since the day my people finished constructing it. All one has to do to reach his destination is bear it in mind."  
  
I thought it was amazing. Simple, but amazing. Who knew the Sheikah could be that genius?  
  
When we walked into Kakariko, I halted and stared. Colorful tents covered the square of the small town; royal banners flew under the dreary sky. Castle workers walked around in full uniform, mingling with Kakariko townspeople, all of whom looked mad at this invasion of their quiet village.   
  
"How come they all came here?" I asked, confused at the sight of what looked like the entire Hylian kingdom jammed into the town square.  
  
Impa had halted beside me; she did not reply. I glanced up at her. Her face was white, and she stared at the spectacle with her crimson eyes wide. She looked breathless with fury.  
  
"Stay here," she ordered me, voice clipped. She stalked into the midst of the chaos and straight to a man who I recognized as the village headman. I watched curiously as they began conversing. It was not long until their low talk turned to a loud argument. Impa jabbed a finger toward the cluster of tents and people and yelled something; she looked angrier than I had ever seen her before. The headman said something, his face turning red, but Impa shouted again and pointed, this time at me.  
  
The headman looked at me, startled into a silence. His brow furrowed thoughtfully, then he rose up on his toes to say something in Impa's ear. She replied, and the headman nodded. He stepped around her and headed to the tents.   
  
I could hear his bellows carried on the wind from where I stood. "Get all these tents out of here _now!_ I don't _care_ if you're homeless, we'll find some other way to shelter you! This is too damn conspicuous!"  
  
When the Hylians appeared reluctant to do as he ordered, Impa swooped in. With her on their heels, the Hylians packed up promptly, stuffing their tents away and lowering the banners. I sat in the grass, hugging my knees, and watched.  
  
The Hylians clustered in the freed square after the last traces of their camp was eliminated, and Impa came back to me, shaking her head. "Idiots," she muttered. "They think they can hide in this village with banners waving and everyone in full palace ragalia! Why don't they just have a herald announce it from Death Mountain?!"  
  
I hid a smile, but Impa was not fooled. She scowled at me, then closed and hand over my elbow and tugged me to my feet. "Come on. The Hylians will all be wanting solutions to their problems. We'd best let them see that there's someone here who should be well hidden before any of them are even considered."  
  
I wasn't sure I liked that idea, but I had to follow Impa to the village square. It was either walk or be dragged. Sometimes I wondered if Impa knew her own strength.  
  
She deposited me in front of the crowd next to the headman and glared at all the Hylians, who immediately began to yell at her.  
  
"What are we supposed to do?!"  
  
"Our home was invaded!"  
  
"We need someplace to live!"  
  
"So find a place," Impa snapped in response, "instead of beggaring this village with your troubles! Where's the king?"  
  
The babble broke out again.  
  
"No one knows-"  
  
"He ran off and left us!"  
  
"Coward turned tail and-"  
  
"How _dare _you say such a thing!" I snapped, bristling at the guard who had insulted my father. So he wasn't the best of leaders; so what? That didn't make him a coward!  
  
The guard, looking as though he were about to snap right back, got a good look at me. His eyes bulged. "Y-Your Highness!"  
  
Eyes shifted to me; there was a sudden flurry of bows and curtsies and murmers of, "Your Highness."  
  
Impa said to my people, "Is there anyone here who feels his need to be hidden is greater than the princess's?"  
  
Every Hylian denied instantly. I felt a sudden rush of guilt at my anger -and Impa's- toward my people.  
  
Then one woman, braver or perhaps more foolish than the rest, spoke up. "We do not deny that the princess's need comes before ours...but...what are we and our families to do?"  
  
"The castle?" Impa asked with a frown.  
  
The woman who had spoken before lowered her eyes. "Destroyed, miss. Every stone was torn down."  
  
I gasped, hands pressed to my mouth.  
  
"W-what?" Impa stammered. "How? How could that have happened? Only Ganondorf entered the castle!"  
  
The guard who had called my father a coward spoke up. "It was that way at first, miss," he said shakily. "Ganondorf disappeared after you fled with the princess- we assumed he was going after you. But then he came back with...with..." He shuddered, horror dawning on his features. "It was an army of 'em...of creature like none you've ever seen. Monsters, they were. They killed my squad-" His voice broke, and he turned away. A man next to him placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Impa seemed stunned; so was I. I looked around, at the cluster of Hylians, and saw for the first time the darkness in each and every one of their eyes- the horror there, that told of what they had seen and survived where their brethren had not.  
  
I looked away. I could not keep my eyes on my haunted people.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 6: Oracle 


	6. Oracle

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Hey, guys. Sorry again for the delay in getting this chapter out. I won't be posting at all during the President's Day weekend because I'm going away, but when I get back I will try to post again. Thanks for your patience, and please review.  
  


***  
  
Oracle  


  
Talk resumed again about the home of my people. Impa asked them if the castle town had been destroyed along with the palace.  
  
"I believe the castle town is untouched, as of now," reported the shopkeeper of the Bazarr, a store that sold weapons and supplies. "I was one of the last to evacuate, after finishing some business within my shop. By that point the castle was destroyed, but things seemed to have quieted down a bit."  
  
Impa considered this. "And the fate of the Temple of Time?" she asked the crowd.  
  
The Bazarr shopkeeper and some of the guards shook their heads. "We've no idea."  
  
"I see." Impa paced a bit, staring at the ground, a thoughtful gleam in her eye. The villagers and the Hylians watched her silently. Suddenly she seemed to think of something; she glanced up. "Has anyone seen Rauru? The temple caretaker? Did he evacuate with you?"  
  
I looked at Impa in surprise. Concern over the temple itself I understood, but why would she be worried about the strange old man who cared for it?  
  
"Rauru did not evacuate with the rest of his kingdom," said a harsh voice, cracked with age, beside me. "He remains safely in his temple."  
  
I glanced to my left; Impa, I knew, was doing the same. There at my elbow, between the Kakarikan headman and me, stood a tiny old woman barely my height. Her hair was snow white, her face covered in wrinkles like folds of leather. Gnarled hands clutched the handle of a rough wooden cane.   
  
"You may as well all go back to your castle town," the old woman said, staring at the crowd. "It will be safe for another four years, at least. Eventually darkness with consume it, as it will all of Hyrule, but you will certainly have enough time to set your affairs in order and move away."  
  
Whispers and murmers swept through the crowd; the Hylians were considering the woman's statement.   
  
I felt Impa tense behind me, and distinctly heard her mutter, "Oracle."  
  
The old woman turned to look up at Impa with eyes of a milky white. "Yes, Sheikah," she said stiffly. "I possess the Sight."  
  
I blinked. "Sight? What sight? Pardon me for saying so, ma'am, but you look very blind."  
  
The woman turned her blank, milky eyes to me. Her lips twisted in what could have a wry smile. "The princess has too much curiosity," she announced. "And little tact."  
  
I scowled. "And you are not very polite, grandmother."  
  
"Hush," Impa said, placing a hand on my shoulder and pulling me back to stand beside her. She bowed to the old woman. "Oracle, far-seeing and wise, I am of the Sheikah, as you have perceived. To my people a prophet is born every generation. Do you possess Sheikah blood?"  
  
The oracle shook her head. "No. The goddesses give the Sight to who they will, not merely the Sheikah. I have been oracle since the day I was born. What do you wish to ask me?"  
  
Impa seemed to suddenly become aware that everyone, Hylian and Kakarikan, were staring at the two women with curiosity and fascination. "May we speak in private, Oracle?" she asked the old seer.  
  
Everyone in the watching crowd suddenly found something to do with their hands. The oracle nodded and walked some paces away from the village square, headed toward the well, as Impa and I followed.  
  
"Perhaps the young one should go and play," the oracle growled when she reached the well, thumping her cane on the ground.  
  
"I will not," I snapped. "I want to know what happened-"  
  
"Be quiet, Zelda," Impa interrupted.   
  
The oracle waved a hand. "Do not silence her. If she wishes to hear what I have to say so badly, she may do so." The woman fixed her blind stare on me. "Your kingdom is fated for complete destruction, little princess."  
  
I remained silent for several moments, my shaking hands clenched into fists. "I don't believe you," I said at last, very softly.  
  
"I do not ask for your belief." The oracle turned to Impa. "You wish to know what happened last night, when you fled the castle. I do not know much. My vision in this is hazy. However, I can tell you one thing for certain." The woman took a breath, looking very grim. "The Sacred Realm has been breached."  
  
_"What?!"_ Impa shrieked, her composure lost in one of those rare moments. I, on the other hand, was stunned into silence.  
  
"Ganondorf took the Triforce of Power. He is going to destroy Hyrule."  
  
Impa hid her face in shaking hands. "Please," she whispered, sounding close to tears. "Please, goddesses, shadows. Don't let it be true."  
  
"It is true," the oracle said harshly. "Hyrule is doomed."  
  
"How, dammit?" Impa demanded. "How the hell did it happen?"  
  
"This I do not know."  
  
Impa began pacing once more, running a hand over her head. "And the Temple of Time?"  
  
"It remains. The caretaker resides within it." The oracle hesitated, then added, "The night that you fled the castle, the goddesses descended to earth. They blessed the Temple of Time and made it sacred land, on which no evil may tread."  
  
This caught Impa's attention, and mine. Jerked out of my numbed trance, I stared at the oracle. "Why?" I demanded.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"No wonder Rauru is staying," Impa muttered. "He's safe in there." Suddenly she looked at me; an odd, thoughtful gleam was present in her blood-red eyes. I stared up at her, wondering what she was thinking.  
  
"One more thing, Sheikah woman," said the oracle, drawing Impa's attention and mine back to her. "You will be called upon very soon. It is time for you to join the shadows."  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 7: Sage  



	7. Sage

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Okay, here's the next chapter as promised. So how was everyone's President Day weekend? Mine sucked, basically because I got very sick. But that's another story...  
  
Enjoy the story, and please review!  


  
***  
  
Sage  


  
"What?" I cried, panicking at the oracle's words. "Impa's going to_ die?!"_  
  
"Farore's mercy, Zelda, I'm not going to die," Impa snapped. I looked at her, hurt by her reaction. Then I saw that her face was unusually pale, beads of sweat dotting her forehead.  
  
"What did she mean?" I whispered, frightened. "What's going to happen?"  
  
Impa sighed and ran a hand over her head. "I knew this day would come," she said, more to herself than to me. "Of course I knew, but I hoped...I hoped that maybe if I ignored it, I don't know, it would just go away."  
  
"What would go away?" I cried. "Tell me please, Impa!"  
  
Impa looked at me, eyes grave. "I...I am a sage."  
  
"Sage?" I whispered, dumbfounded. I had read of the strange phenomenons called "sages". They were born every few generations, but only when Hyrule was in grave danger, traditionally numbering seven. Their destinies preordained, they usually lived normal lives until the goddesses chose to give them their powers- at that point, they "awakened" as sages and knew what they had to do to fulfill their duties as such. In the past, they had protected the power within sacred temples, hidden throughout Hyrule.  
  
But they were _legends_. There was no evidence of sages ever being born in Hyrule, only stories and rumors. Likewise, there was no evidence that their temples existed- and if they did, no one knew where they were or how to find them. The only known temple in Hyrule was the Temple of Time, which had stood since the birth of Hyrule itself.  
  
"Sages aren't real," I said at last.  
  
Impa smiled wearily. "If only that were true. Then I'd have nothing to worry about."  
  
I stared accusingly into Impa's eyes. "You can't be a sage. They don't know it until they've been awakened. I read the legends."  
  
Impa sighed. "That is true, normally," she acknowledged. "But I have known since before I even came to Hyrule. The Sheikah clan I was born to, as once lived outside of Hyrule, had a powerful and wise prophet. He saw that I was a sage from the day I was born. He told me, when I was of age to understand."  
  
I gaped at her, openmouthed. My Impa, a sage? A reincarnation of one of the ancients- one who_ wasn't_ a legend? How was that possible?  
  
"If you are a sage, then where is your temple?" I demanded.  
  
"That I do not know," Impa said. "I suppose I will when I am awakened to my powers."  
  
"Stop questioning your elders, child," snapped the old oracle, making me jump. I'd forgotten that she was still there. "Being princess does not instantly make you wise to the world of goddesses and destiny." The oracle turned her blind eyes to Impa. "There is another problem."  
  
Impa nodded. "I know," she said wearily. "Ganondorf."  
  
The oracle nodded. "Once he has grown accustomed to his power, he will use it to find the location of the sages. He knows that they alone threaten him. No matter where you go, he will find you."  
  
"Impa?" I said softly.  
  
Impa looked down at me. I knew what she was going to say, and I shook my head to stop her.  
  
"You're not leaving me."  
  
"I have to," said Impa.  
  
"You're _not._ That's an order!"  
  
Impa knelt so that her eyes were level with mine, and placed a hand on my shoulder. "You know that a risk to your safety can override any order, no matter who it comes from," she said gently to me.  
  
I yanked out of her hold, trembling. I hated it when she spoke to me in that quiet, gentle voice. My Impa was only gentle when she had to tell me something truly terrible.  
  
"Stop it," I snapped. "Stop talking to me like that. You can't leave me. Who's going to take care of me?"  
  
"The villagers will," said Impa patiently.   
  
"And what if Ganondorf comes? They can't protect me from him!"  
  
"If Ganondorf comes, you'll go to the Temple of Time," Impa replied steadily.  
  
I blinked at her. "What? Why?"  
  
"It's sacred ground. Ganondorf is a creature of evil. He can no longer cross its threshhold."  
  
I went and threw my arms around her neck, closing my eyes to hold back tears. "I'm frightened," I whispered. "Please don't leave me."  
  
Impa hugged me fiercely, her strong arms crushing the air from my lungs. "I wouldn't if I didn't have to," she said, and loosened her grip. "I have to."  
  
I had to tell her. Maybe she wouldn't go if she knew that it was her I was concerned for more than myself. Blinking the tears from my eyes, I said, "Impa, if Ganondorf takes you-"  
  
Impa pulled back to hold me by my shoulders and gaze into my eyes. "Zelda, you are a princess. Someday you'll be a queen. Get used to making sacrifices."  
  
I stared at her in horror. "Impa, what...?"  
  
Impa stood and looked down at me. Her face was hard; she looked taller, foreboding. "That is the price to pay when you are royalty. Your life is worth more than mine. If I die, I die. We all do, sooner or later."  
  
"You and your cursed Sheikah philosophies!" I cried furiously. "Life is not death, Impa!"  
  
Impa gripped my chin in one hand and bent down to kiss my forehead. "Goodbye, Zelda," she said. Then she turned and walked away, out of my life, leaving me alone with only the old oracle, silent witness to our parting.  
  
I sank to my knees, in the dirt in the middle of Kakariko Village, and wept for the life I had lost that fateful night.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 8: Escape 


	8. Escape

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_Well here's another chapter for your reading enjoyment. ^_^ I've been writing as fast as I can manage, trying to get these out for you guys...and you're liking them! *sob* I'm so happy. Everybody says that the chapters are too short, but...that's all part of my plan!! Mwa ha ha! I write 'em short a) for effect and b) so that I don't kill myself writing (if it takes me this long to upload, just imagine how long it'd be if the chapters weren't so teeney!!).  
  
This chapter's a particularly short one, though. Sorry guys, I'll try to make the next one longer.   


  
***  


  


Escape  


  
I had never felt so lost. In all my life, someone had always been by my side, be it Impa or my father. Now I was alone in a village of strangers, cared for by people I barely knew, people badly equipped to defend me if Ganondorf ever decided to make an attempt on my life. For the first time since the day I was born, I knew true fear.  
  
I lived in Kakariko for a month. Every day I waited with pathetic hope for Impa to come back, to renounce her duties as a sage and be my nursemaid once more. She never returned. Sick with fear for both Impa and myself, I became a pale, withdrawn shadow of my former self, eating little and sleeping less. The headman and his wife, in whose house I resided, cared for me as best they could, trying to get me to eat fattening stews while we, all three of us, waited with bated breath for news from the castle.  
  
My people quietly returned to their homes in the castle town after the oracle assured them once more that they were in no danger for several years. She warned them, however, to get their affairs in order and make plans to move away, for eventually the evil that shadowed the castle would sweep to the town as well. The word from the castle town was that Ganondorf was rebuilding the glorious Hylian palace in his own, twisted image. The thought of it made me sick and furious. How dare this dark man, to whom we had done nothing, make the Hylian kingdom suffer?  
  
For a month we all waited, tensely, helplessly, for something to occur. Then it did.  
  
It was barely dawn when a squad of soldiers from the castle came galloping into the village. The soldiers, especially, were our eyes and ears from the castle. They guarded, they watched, and they most of all knew what was going on.   
  
"Ganondorf's coming to the village today," a soldier gasped in between gulps of water to the headman as his wife and I listened intently. "'Inspecting it' was the phrase he used, but I bet you he's coming to find the princess. He hinted as much."  
  
"Why does he want me so badly?" I whispered, terrified. "What have I ever done to him?"  
  
The village headman looked at his wife. "Kalen-"  
  
His wife nodded. "I'll take care of her." She took me by the elbow and led me gently into her house, closing the door behind us.  
  
"What's going to happen to me?" I cried as she unlocked and began rummaging in a trunk of old clothes.   
  
"Change into this, quickly," Kalen ordered, tossing me a peasant's dress in just my size. "Good thing I saved these clothes after our daughter got too big for 'em. You have to leave, Your Highness."  
  
I did as she commanded, shedding the nightdress I had worn day in and day out for the last few weeks, ever since my flight from the castle, and pulled on the simple shift with shaking fingers. "Where can I go?" Then I answered my own question. "Impa told me, the Temple of Time-"  
  
Kalen shook her head vigorously. "You can't risk meeting Ganondorf on the way. He's coming from just that direction." Finding a brown woolen cloak in her trunk, she tugged it around my shoulders, then swept up my discarded dress and locked it away. "Go to the Goron City and find Darunia. He'll know what to do."  
  
It was the best plan either of us could have come up with. Darunia, king of the Gorons, was a sworn brother of my father, and my closest living relative. I rarely saw him, but if I managed to convince him that I was the princess, he would be obliged to help me.  
  
Kalen led me out of her house and to the foot of the Death Mountain trail. As the soldier on guard opened the gate, she kissed my cheek and tugged the hood of the cloak up to conceal my face. "Goddesses be with you, Your Highness," she whispered. "Go quickly, now."  
  
She gave me a gentle nudge toward the trail, then turned and hurried back to the village, leaving me to face the great mountain alone.  
  
***  
  
The journey was simple enough. I dolefully followed the single, winding trail that would lead me to the Goron City, and eventually, if I continued on, to the volcanic summit itself. I did not run -I was too out of shape to hurry- but I did not take my time about it, either. I was well aware that Ganondorf might be following me up the mountain this very moment.  
  
Gorons lazed about on the sides of the trail, watching me curiously as I went by. They did not get visitors up here very much, I knew, but they were creatures of few words. They said nothing to me, but a few of them got to their feet and followed as I made my way steadily into the scooped bowl of the Goron City, lying in the very heart of Death Mountain.  
  
The city was comfortably cool and dry. I made my way down winding staircases that would have bewildered almost anyone, only I had been here before. Emerging onto the lower level, I crossed the sandy floor to stand, with an honor guard of Gorons at my back, before the entrance to Darunia's chambers.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 9: Owl 


	9. Owl

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
  
_Masses, rejoice! It's a slightly longer chapter! ^_^  
  


***  
  
Owl  


  
I stared at the large door, which seemed to be made of a slab of rock, for several minutes. My nerves were humming. The back of my neck was prickling and I felt horribly weak, as though I might collapse any moment. I was afraid to knock- I had not seen my uncle Darunia for many years, and had no idea how he would react to my sudden appearance. What if he didn't recognize me? What could I do to convince him that I was the princess of Hyrule?  
  
I was so lost in my own worries, it took a few minutes to notice the whispers at my back. The Gorons were conferring about my situation. When still I hesitated, they urged forward one of their own, who stepped carefully around me and banged three times on the door, loudly.  
  
It flew open in moments. Darunia stood before me- the biggest, brawniest Goron I'd ever seen, with arms as thick as tree trunks and a wild mane of hair. His black eyes, bright with intelligence, swept over first me, then the Gorons.  
  
He turned to the one who had knocked and asked something in his native tongue, which I could neither speak nor understand. The Goron replied in the same language, gesturing to me, and Darunia's beetle-black eyes found me once more.  
  
"What brings you to my city, Highness?" he asked in the Hylian language, his tone and manner surprisingly gallant.  
  
I blinked at him. "You recognize me," I said, overwhelmed by nerves.  
  
"Of course," said he. "What are you doing here all alone? Where's your father? Or that Sheikah woman who's always at your side, what's-her-name. Impa."  
  
I burst into tears. The Gorons were startled into silence. They all stood shock-still, staring at me as I sank to my knees and covered my face with my hands, sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn't stop. It was just too much. It had come to me then- princess or not, I was just a little girl, lost and afraid and alone in the world. Unprotected. At the mercy of what horrors, the goddesses only knew.  
  
After a minute or two, I felt a hard, reassuringly solid hand on my shoulder, and my sobs quieted some.   
  
"There," Darunia said. I could feel his hesitation, the awkwardness at being forced to deal with a crying little girl, undoubtedly one of the problems he rarely had to worry about.   
  
Slow vibrations in the dirt beneath me were the heavy footsteps of the Gorons as they returned to their daily tasks, leaving Darunia and I alone. I kept my head bowed as I quickly composed myself, wiping the tears from my cheeks.  
  
I looked up at my uncle, cheeks scarlet with shame. "Sorry," was all I could manage.  
  
To my surprise Darunia bent down, wrapped his strong arms around me, and lifted me easily. "Tell me what happened," he commanded.  
  
"I can't believe you haven't already heard," I said, startled out of my misery.  
  
"We don't get the news very fast up here in the city."  
  
"But it's been a _month!"_  
  
"Since Ganondorf took the castle, you mean?" I stared into Darunia's beetle black eyes, astonished again. He smiled half-heartedly. "Oh, we know about that. I figured your Sheikah was taking care of you."  
  
"She was," I replied in a small voice, trying my hardest to hold back the tears that threatened to well once more. "But she had to go away. She's a sage."  
  
Darunia nodded as he carried me into his chambers. "So you came to stay here."  
  
"No. I was staying in Kakariko. But Ganondorf's coming after me."  
  
Darunia abruptly set me down and stared at me, wide-eyed. "Now?"  
  
I nodded.   
  
Darunia hesitated. "Zelda," he began, then stopped and shook his head. "No, that's not right. Your Highness. If Ganondorf is coming here, I can't-" He hesitated again.  
  
"You can't keep me here," I supplied kindly. "I know that, Uncle. If anything happened, Impa wanted me to go to the Temple of Time, only I can't because that's the direction Ganondorf-"  
  
"Oh, is _that_ the problem?" Darunia interrupted. "That's not a problem at all. I know someone who I'm sure can help."  
  
"You do?"  
  
"Of course." Without hesitation Darunia scooped me up in his arms once more and headed to the back of his chambers. "Come. We're going to the mountain peak."  
  
"B-but what about the Gorons?" I said worriedly. "What if Ganondorf comes?"  
  
"If Ganondorf comes, they won't have anything to lie about." Darunia set me on my feet again before his throne and motioned for me to get on his back. I did, clinging to his massive shoulders as he rose and gripped his throne with both hands.  
  
"They know I was here," I said.  
  
"But they don't know where we went. Honesty's the best policy, Your Highness." Darunia dug his feet into the earth and tugged with all his might. Inch by inch the heavy throne slid back, revealing a gaping hole leading into a dark red mist. Heat suddenly pressed down on us, swirling from the passage behind the throne.  
  
"What is that?" I whispered, fascinated.  
  
Darunia said, "The Death Mountain crater."  
  
***  
  
The heat was immense. I clung to Darunia weakly, my head laid helplessly on his shoulders as he rapidly climbed the walls of the crater, up toward blue sky. We were in the very heart of the volcano, hanging perilously by Darunia's fingertips over a pool of liquid fire, and I could only withstand the heat for so long.  
  
My sweat was cold. The hairs of the back of my neck were suddenly prickling. I felt the sensation -the oddest sensation, and one almost familiar- of something creeping behind my eyes, reaching to touch my mind...  
  
_What was taking advantage of my weakness to try and speak to me? _  
  
I shuddered.   
  
"Are you all right?" I heard Darunia ask, from far away.  
  
"No," I croaked.  
  
"We're almost there."  
  
He scaled the cliff wall faster. I did not know it. I only felt the rush of fresh air, the cool touch of twilight, as Darunia climbed over the edge of the cliff and brought us out into the rapidly dying afternoon.  
  
I slid from his back, my knees weak. Whatever had tried to touch me was gone. Darunia and I stood on the very peak of Death Mountain, on the roof of the world, it seemed- I could see everywhere, from the field to the east to the blue ocean far to the west. Kakariko Village was a picturesque tapestry, nestled in the shade of the great mountain. The view made my head swim.  
  
After a few moments I realized Darunia was talking. "-after the castle was destroyed. I don't know why he'd be after her, but if Impa thinks she's in real danger then we'd better listen."  
  
"Well, I can take her to the Temple of Time, but I'm not the person who should be protecting her," a new voice replied. Confused, I turned to face Darunia. My mouth fell open.  
  
Darunia was conversing with a giant owl, perched upon an outcropping of rock.   
  
"Darunia," I said, utterly amazed. "What...?"  
  
The owl's gleaming amber eyes turned to find me. He ruffled his feathers in an uneasy sort of way and cocked his head to one side, staring at me.  
  
"So you are the princess of destiny," he said.  
  
I only gaped, unable to think of a word to say.  
  
The owl continued to stare at me for several long moments. "She's small," he said at last.  
  
I felt Darunia's solid, reassuring grip on my shoulder. "Small, yes, but brave as a Goron warrior. Zelda, this is Kaepora Gaebora, an old friend of mine. Kaepora, Her Highness Zelda, Princess of Hyrule."  
  
Kaepora inclined his head to me. "Good to meet you." Without waiting for my reply, he looked to Darunia again. "I cannot-"  
  
"I'm not asking you to take care of her," Darunia interrupted shortly. "I'm asking you to take her to the temple. It's Impa's request."  
  
"Then let us not deny Impa. I will carry the Hylian princess to the temple, then I leave. I'm going south before I encounter anymore of this unpleasantness." Kaepora leapt off the rock and waddled over to us, ungainly on his talons.  
  
Darunia was frowning at him. "Some might call that a coward's way out," he said stiffly.  
  
"Nevertheless. I have no connections here. My charge has disappeared." Kaepora ruffled his feathers and turned his back to us. "Climb on, little princess, and let's get you to safety."  
  
I looked up wordlessly at Darunia, who nodded. "Go on, Your Highness."  
  
"Darunia," I said, and touched his arm tentatively.  
  
The Goron King bent down and lifted me once more. "If you're going to say thanks, skip it," he ordered. "I'm your uncle. If you ever need help, you can always come to me."  
  
"Thank you," I said stubbornly.  
  
Darunia only grinned and lifted me onto his shoulder so I could clamber aboard the giant owl's back. I wrapped my arms around Kaepora's neck and gripped his feathers tightly as Darunia patted my leg, his smile fading.  
  
"Be safe, Your Highness."  
  
The owl's greats wings unfurled, and Kaepora and I took to the air.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 10: Sanctuary 


	10. Sanctuary

_A note from the Hime-_  
  
Well, you guys know how bad I am at uploading. Now you know how bad I am at uploading when I've got a bunch of huge school projects hanging over my head, not to mention a nice gloomy cloud of depression...but that's another story.  
  
Thanks for reading, please review. Zelda does not belong to me.  
  


***  
  
Sanctuary  


  
Kaepora banked past the mountains and into open air above Hyrule Field as I clung to his feathers for dear life, my eyes squeezed tightly shut. I felt sick; my head was swimming, and all I could think about was Ganondorf and the murderous gleam in his eyes that had been present even on that day in the throne room. What did he want with me? Why did Impa and the others think it so necessary to protect me from him?  
  
A great thunderclap sounded suddenly all around us, eliciting a shriek from me that neither of us could hear. The heavens opened and rain began to pour down in icy sheets.  
  
Kaepora quickly began to lose altitude, flapping his wings hard to keep us aloft. He muttered something that was lost over the howl of the wind.  
  
"What?" I yelled, struggling to raise my voice.  
  
"I don't _like_ this!" Kaepora shouted back- I could barely hear him. "This is probably an omen, you know!"  
  
I had nothing to say to that. I buried my face in Kaepora's feathers and refused to look up again until I felt us descending.  
  
We had reached the castle town in record time. Squinting through the rain, I saw the gloomy outline of the Temple of Time below us. Kaepora spiraled downward, and I clung as hard as possible to his neck to keep from falling off. My head was swimming again. Blackness was creeping into the edges of my vision. I felt dizzy and sick, as though I were about to faint.  
  
Then a dark figure loomed into my mind's eye, and I screamed.  
  
_"We can't go down there!"_  
  
We hit the ground with a thump. Kaepora's reply was lost on me. I rolled off his back, landing on my hands and knees in a puddle of mud, and climbed shakily to my feet.  
  
And met the gleaming eyes of a madman.  
  
"Princess," he said.  
  
Kaepora shrieked, a mindless, terrified sound that expressed my emotions perfectly. He took wing immediately, flapping away through the stormy sky, leaving me alone and defenseless.  
  
I took a step back, then another, and another. I moved slowly and silently, with the utmost care, as if he were a wild animal that would snap at any sudden movement. I felt my back press against a hard wooden surface- the doors of the temple. My hand groped for a handle and gave it a hard jerk.  
  
The door didn't budge. I could not open it. A smile spread slowly across Ganondorf's lips as we both arrived at this conclusion. My scalp prickled with horror.  
  
"I wonder," said he, "why the power of the goddesses alerts me to you." His voice was deep, thick, and quite hypnotic in its mad softness. I wanted to run -how desperately I wanted to run- but I was rooted to the spot, unable to even twitch.  
  
"It's strange, isn't it?" he continued, his eyes fixed on me with a predatorial hunger. "You, just a little girl...separated from your family, your home...why, forsaken by your very kingdom."  
  
I wanted to deny it, say it wasn't so, but my throat had died.  
  
"Not a bit of power. Not a bit..." he murmered. "So why? Unless-" His eyes widened slightly. "The ocarina...that boy..."  
  
The eyes were calculating, the mouth set. "So he's the one. And you- his guide."  
  
I shook my head wordlessly at him. I could not for the life of me understand what he was talking about.  
  
"Very well." His hand moved to his back- I saw it wrap around the handle of a sword, and he slid the great, black weapon from its sheathe. My throat tightened as I looked at it. Barely able to breathe, I attempted to flatten myself into the doors of the temple.  
  
"Come here, princess." He moved fluidly toward me like a cat stalking its prey, hunger and ferocity dominating his features. "Be a good little girl and bear your throat. It won't hurt- much." A smile lit his face.  
  
"Help." It came out as a choked whisper. "Please...help."  
  
"There's no one to save you, princess," he replied, his voice soft and oddly gentle.   
  
"Stay away," I whispered.  
  
He kept walking. Each step brought him closer, too close. Any moment he'd swing that terrible sword and...  
  
"Stay away!" I screamed. "_Stay away!_ Goddesses, Impa, shadows, help me! _HELP ME!"_  
  
Ganondorf raised his sword, his terrifying grin freezing the very blood in my veins.  
  
"Somebody h-" I was cut off as the doors behind me abruptly and dramatically flew open- I lost my balance and stumbled back through the threshold of the temple and into a strong, solid pair of hands.  
  
Ganondorf halted, his eyes dwelling uncertainly on my rescuer. I craned my neck to look behind and up at a wildly fierce old man wearing a ceremonial red robe, his tan, weathered face partially concealed behind a snow white moustache and beard- Rauru, the caretaker of the Temple of Time.   
  
The anger in his flashing eyes as he glared at the Dark King made me shiver. "Get out of this place!" he roared, fierce as a lion. "How dare you step on sacred ground?!"  
  
Ganondorf's eyes widened. "Sacred!" he snarled, and spat in the dirt. "Then it is the boy- that damned boy your goddesses are trying to protect!"  
  
Rauru shoved me back further into the temple and planted himself solidly between Ganondorf and I. "You will never cross this threshold," he said, voice icy cold. "The children of destiny are protected here. Go back to your dark dwelling, and never show your face here again."  
  
I saw Ganondorf hesitate, and was astounded that this short, rather thickset old man could command him. Yet the power radiating from him was difficult to ignore- it spoke of warmth and light and everything the Dark King stood against. In its presence, I was comforted, and I looked on my nemesis with only a slight quiver of fear.  
  
But when his eyes met mine, dark and shadowed in his murderous intentions, I knew terror once more. "Enjoy your prison, princess," he spat. "I'd not dare step out of it, were I you, lest your blood be spilled by my hands."  
  
He turned and swept majestically away, shadows enveloping him until he was no longer in sight. Rauru slammed the doors shut and turned the heavy bolt.  
  
"There," he said calmly, turning toward me. "You're perfectly safe here, Your Highness."  
  
"A-am I?" I squeaked, feeling the blood return to my pallid face and icy fingers.  
  
"Of course. The goddesses have blessed the temple. No creature of darkness may cross its threshold."  
  
"I know," I said softly, examining my surroundings. I had been in here before, of course-most services to the goddesses were performed within these walls. Yet it seemed different, somehow. It was colder, harsher, like the hall of sculpted art in the palace where I was allowed to touch nothing- the polished walls were glaring, the bit of moonlight that filtered in from the pristine windows barely touching the gloom. It was the same temple that I had visited countless times in my life, and it wasn't.  
  
There was another change. The Door of Time was opened.   
  
"How did-" The words died in my throat as my eyes fell on the altar before the Door. The three Spiritual Stones rested upon- the great emerald, ruby, and sapphire. A vision of a golden-haired boy appeared in my mind.  
  
I swallowed hard and walked toward the Door, the tapping of my feet on the marble floor quite audible in the silent temple. I could feel Rauru's eyes on me, but he made neither sound nor move to stop me. I halted before Door of Time, afraid to go further, afraid to see what was beyond a threshold I had never crossed. But my curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked inside.  
  
My first impression was that of height. The room was hexagonal, fairly wide, and _tall_. The arched ceiling stretched so high up that I could barely see the top. In the middle of the room was a tiered hexagonal platform- not a Triforce hexagon, but something else. Six circles were imprinted around the edge of it, and etched within the circles were strange designs. I looked closely at the hexagon, at the flash of gold that caught my eye.  
  
Link, the boy whom I had met in the courtyard that day, whom I'd entrusted the ocarina to, lay sprawled across the platform, a great sword clutched in his hand. His eyes were tightly closed, his form as still as death.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 11. 


	11. Hero

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Heya guys, guess what…it's another update!! *mass rejoicing* So how was the wait between chapters this time? Not too long, I hope? ^_^ I actually wrote this chapter pretty fast but didn't have access to a computer for a while which was why I couldn't post right away. I'll stop babbling now.  
  
Zelda does not belong to me, it belongs to the great Miyamoto-sama, who'd better come out with the next damn game soon!!  
  


***  
  
Hero  


  
I screamed at the sight of Link, sprawled flat on his stomach with a sword clutched in his grip, his white fairy crumpled close to his free hand. "Rauru! What _happened?"_  
  
Rauru appeared in the doorway within moments, but I was already at Link's side. I knelt, shaking, and brought my ear close to his chest. There was his steady heartbeat; his breathing was slow and strong, like that of one in a deep sleep. I sat back on my heels, heaving a sigh of relief.  
  
"He's sleeping," I said, turning my gaze to Rauru.  
  
His eyes fell on me, dark and grave. "Yes," he said softly, "almost."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Look behind you," Rauru ordered. I turned, glancing momentarily down at Link before looking up once more. There was a pedestal on the hexagonal platform that I'd not noticed before, dead center. It was made of marble, short and plain with only a Triforce mark for decoration, but the power radiating from it made the hair on the back of my neck raise. I wondered why I hadn't noticed it before.  
  
"What is it?" I asked without turning my gaze away.  
  
His answer made my scalp prickle. "It is the door."  
  
I turned and stared at him. "To what?"  
  
"To the Sacred Realm."  
  
The Sacred Realm. I should've known. This temple housed the only gateway to that godly place in all of Hyrule- why, this temple had been built for the purpose of protecting it. That everyone knew. But still...  
  
"How is a pedestal a doorway?" I demanded skeptically.  
  
Rauru smiled a bit and walked to our side, Link's and mine. He bent over Link and grasped the wrist of the hand clutching the sword, lifting it to show me. The sword did not slip from Link's grip- his hand was wound so tightly around the handle that his knuckles were white. I stared at the sword in fascination; at the ornamental handle and gold Triforce mark below the hilt, at the dark, shimmering blade that seemed to almost whisper. I reached out a slightly quivering hand and placed my fingerstips reverently to it. The blade was cold and hot all at once, humming under my touch.  
  
"It's called the Master Sword," Rauru said quietly, placing Link's wrist gently down when I took my fingers away. "This was what once rested in the pedestal, before your friend here removed it. Where the pedestal is the doorway, this sword is the key."  
  
"And to open the door...?"  
  
"The Master Sword must be removed from the pedestal. Only one with a pure heart may do so."  
  
"But Ganondorf..." I said, confused.  
  
Rauru nodded. "This is where he breached the Sacred Realm," he said in answer to my unfinished question. "This boy came to the temple unaware that he was leading Ganondorf. He entered the room using the Spiritual Stones and the Song of Time..."  
  
The Song of Time? I knew of that. It was written on the door to this sacred room, able to be played only with a sacred instrument...only with the goddesses' gift to my family, the Ocarina of Time...  
  
"The boy took the Master Sword and removedit from its pedestal. The door to the Sacred Realm opened and Ganondorf shoved the boy aside, entering the Sacred Realm himself where he took the Triforce of Power."  
  
"And Link?" I said breathlessly.  
  
Rauru looked down at the boy. "Link took destiny into his hands too soon," he said gravely.  
  
"What do you mean?" I demanded, but Rauru answered with his own question.  
  
"What do you know of the Hero of Time?"  
  
I blinked. I had heard the title, read of it in my father's library. "The Hero of Time is the champion of the goddesses," I said, reciting from memory. "He is destined to come when Hyrule has fallen into dark, violent times. His light will restore calm and bring about a golden age of peace and prosperity. But he's just a legend, of course," I added matter-of-factly.  
  
Rauru half-smiled. "Not anymore."  
  
I took the hint. "You can't possibly mean him."  
  
"But I do."  
  
"That's impossible," I snapped. This was too much. Goddesses, tyrants, sages, and now heroes- it was as though I were suddenly living in a very grim fairy tale. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen in real life. "The Hero of Time is a _legend."_  
  
"He's not," said Rauru patiently. "Has Hyrule not fallen into a time of darkness and violence? Is Hyrule not in need of a hero, with the King disappeared and you forced into hiding? It is this boy's destiny; his fate is entwined with yours, with Ganondorf's, with all of Hyrule's. You yourself entrusted the Ocarina of Time to him-"  
  
"How do you know about that?" I demanded, startled.  
  
"He used that sacred instrument to open the door to this place. How else could it have been in his possession, unless he stole it from you, which I highly doubt." Rauru paused for a moment, then asked, "Why did you give him the ocarina?"  
  
"I-I'm not sure," I muttered.  
  
"Almost as if it were destiny, isn't it?" Rauru said pointedly.  
  
I made a face. "Fine," I said stiffly. "But tell me this. If he really is the Hero of Time, why is he on the floor sleeping instead of championing for Hyrule?"  
  
"That's no ordinary sleep," Rauru replied grimly. "Hero of Time or not, Link cannot battle Ganondorf in his present state. He possesses the title but is too young to bear it. Thus when he took the Master Sword, the goddesses imprisoned his body and spirit within an enchanted sleep. His body is here, but his spirit is trapped in the Sacred Realm, unconcious and unaware. When he is old enough to fulfill his destiny, he will be released."  
  
"And how long will that be?" I demanded.  
  
Rauru hesitated. "Several years, probably. The blessing of this temple was done to protect him while he is vulnerable in sleep."  
  
I sank to my knees beside Link's empty vessel, my mouth and throat dry. "Tell me you're not serious. I have to wait years for him to wake up and save Hyrule? _Years?"_ My voice rose considerably. "How much damage can Ganondorf do in years?!"  
  
"He will probably destroy most of Hyrule," Rauru said quietly.  
  
I stared at him, speechless. Then I made a snap decision and jumped to my feet. "I'm leaving. I can do much more for Hyrule out there than-"  
  
Rauru caught my wrist in an iron grip. "You can do nothing," he said harshly. "What do you think you can do now when even the Hero of Time is helpless? You're just a little girl."  
  
"I'm a princess," I snapped. "So let go of me!"  
  
Rauru did not. "Being a princess is irrelevant. Ganondorf doesn't care. He will kill you the moment you step out of this temple. Nothing can save you from him."  
  
I was silent. My thoughts were dwelling on that night a month ago, when Impa and I fled the castle and I gave my ocarina to Link. If not for that, would he have taken the Master Sword and let Ganondorf into the Sacred Realm? Would he be asleep now, helpless to save Hyrule? How could he be, when entrance to this room was impossible without the combined power of the Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time?  
  
"Destiny is cruel," I said in an empty sort of voice. "Ganondorf has breached the Sacred Realm, making the fall of Hyrule imminent, and it's all my fault."  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 12.


	12. Encounter

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Hello everyone, here's another chapter. I feel this story is progressing pretty smoothly for the most part. I'm just having some trouble coming up with chapter names. It's dificult when they're all one word. Good thing I already have my last five or so chapter names already planned.  
  
Hey, anybody want to help me out with that? It would basically mean that you get to read the chapter before anyone else and help me think of chapter names (and beta if you want, that would certainly be helpful too). Well if you're interested send an e-mail my way. I'll save you the trouble of having to look in my account settings. ^_^ I'm xlilyofharmonyx@aol.com.  
  
Don't own Zelda. Or Sheik, unfortunately. *cry*  
  
  
***  
  
Encounter  
  
It made me sick to think of never seeing sunlight again, save that which streamed through the precious few windows, but Rauru forbade me from stepping outside the Temple of Time.   
  
"Be patient," he told me when I became restless. "At least wait until things have died down a bit. Then we'll go about the proper methods of disguising you so that you can venture outside safely."  
  
This did nothing to improve my mood, so Rauru, who after all had no insane tyrants intent on killing him, ventured out himself and brought me news of the outside world. Kakariko Village was safe- Ganondorf had indeed arrived at the village, only to be told a half-lie that I had been there, but was driven out by the villagers to the mountain. Ganondorf had anticipated that I would somehow make my way to the Temple of Time. Kakariko pledged loyalty to Ganondorf and remained safe.  
  
In the castle town my people were quietly going about their business. A few soldiers remained to guard the town for however long they could, but several squads of the Hylian Guard had fled south to seek help.  
  
"From who?" I demanded when Rauru reported this news, and he could provide no answer.  
  
Ganondorf, oddly, was keeping very quiet. Weeks passed, and he was neither seen nor heard from. No one dared to see what was happening at the wreckage of the palace, but wild rumors were flying among the castle town residents- rumors of an army of horrible creatures, pig-men and giant lizards and skeleton warriors crawling about the site, doing what, the goddesses only knew. But my people had a guess, as the daily pounding of hammers and dragging stones woke them. Ganondorf's monsters were building something. Perhaps a new castle. My blood boiled to think of it.  
  
Every day I asked Rauru if there was news of Impa, and every day he gave me the same answer.  
  
"I've not heard a word about her."  
  
"Where could she have gone?" I moaned. It was beginning to seem hopeless that Impa might ever return and take me from this goddess-forsaken sanctuary.  
  
"She is probably seeking her temple."  
  
I started and stared at Rauru in shock. "You know that she-?"  
  
"Is a sage?" Rauru said calmly. "Yes, I know. She told me long ago, when we were both young. Impa and I were close friends."  
  
There was a misty look in his eyes as he said this, and I did not care to pursue the matter. Sometimes I got the feeling that Rauru was much younger than he appeared, just as I had oftentimes thought that perhaps Impa was older than she looked.... Rauru wasn't Sheikah, but Impa had come to Hyrule at a young age. Perhaps they had been closer than anyone knew. Anything was possible.  
  
***  
  
There was no news of my father. By now the rumors were saying that he had left Hyrule and gone on to safer lands. It made me sick and angry to hear it, just as it made me sick and angry to know that the gossipers could be right. My father was a weak ruler who did not have the gall to stand against someone with Ganondorf's power. I knew this, just as everyone knew this. I simply didn't like to think about it.  
  
The Temple of Time was not the place for a restless princess with too much to think about. It was eerie, silent, and cold, and I wanted to scream every time I imagined how long it might be before Link woke. At the same time I was drawn to him, my sleeping hero- I began to shadow him, to sit next to him for hours at a time and stare at his face. It was maddening, how peaceful he looked in sleep.  
  
One day, during another of these sessions, Rauru came in. He took one look at my pale face and wide eyes and dragged me out of the room.  
  
"It won't do to dwell on the boy," he told me firmly. "You'll drive yourself crazy. If you need something to do that badly, you might want to take a look at this."  
  
He showed me a corner of the temple to the right of the altar, where a discolored stone rolled back to reveal a ladder leading to a cellar of some kind. Rauru lit a candle and we went down- it was not a cellar, after all, but a dark, cramped, and extremely dusty library, so filled with stocked bookcases that there was barely enough room for a table in the center.   
  
Rauru swept what looked like at least ten year's worth of dust off the table before placing the candle down. "I don't get down here much," he said casually.  
  
"Farore's mercy, what do you do to pass the time?" I demanded.  
  
He quirked a brow at me. "When you're as old as I, little princess, a bit of peace and quiet with yourself is valued."  
  
I shuddered at the thought and went to look at a yellowed, fading map of Hyrule that was tacked to the wall. I heard Rauru sit heavily at the table behind me, but he said nothing. I examined Hyrule in silence.   
  
"Our problem is division," I said abruptly to Rauru, as if answering a question he'd asked.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"When Ganondorf..._if_ Ganondorf conquers all of Hyrule, there'll be no one to blame but ourselves. Hyrule is vast, so it's difficult to keep track of what's going on in it all the time. All our peoples- the Gorons, the Zoras, the Kokiri, even the Gerudo- we all receive news at different times and all concern ourselves with what's going on in our own territories. But if someone had kept a closer eye on the Gerudo, would we have known what Ganondorf was planning?" I lifted a finger and traced the outline of Hyrule, starting at my kingdom, far north on the map. I made a decision and turned to Rauru.  
  
"When I am queen, our neighbors will know one another," I declared.   
  
Rauru nodded slowly. "Indeed, a unification may strengthen us. Then, it could also result in more disputes between races."  
  
"That's a risk I'm willing to take." I turned back to the map and pursed my lips, studying it.  
  
"Rauru?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Where are the Sheikah?"  
  
Rauru didn't speak for several moments. Finally he said, "They're dead."   
  
"The clans outside Hyrule, I mean." I turned to Rauru. "Surely there must be some still alive."  
  
Rauru was staring at me, as though he found it very strange that I was questioning him about Sheikah- and for some reason, so did I. It didn't make sense, though. Why shouldn't I be interested in Impa's people?  
  
"I don't know where they are," Rauru said at last, and having my answer, I forgot my bewilderment and turned to other topics.  
  
***  
  
A few days later, Rauru woke up and decided to clean out the library, mostly for my benefit. He worked on it after noon, dusting and sweeping and organizing the many books. I did not offer to help him. I was grateful, certainly, but not enough- having been told that morning once again that I could _not_ step outside the temple, I was moody and temperamental. I paced angrily around the temple's main hall, muttering and kicking the altar in complete irreverence each time I passed it. Rauru, busy below, ignored my quiet tantrum.  
  
Finally I decided to defy Rauru's word -at least partly- and open the temple's doors. Surely there was no harm in standing in the threshold to bask in the sunlight. I checked to make sure that Rauru was still in the library below, then went to the doors and flung them open.   
  
Its lizard-like head swiveled immediately, gleaming yellow eyes locking on mine. Its jaw fell open as if shocked to see me, revealing a mouth full of pointed, blood-stained teeth. We stared at each other rigidly. Then I broke the silence.  
  
"RAURU!"  
  
"What?" I heard him say crossly a moment later as he climbed from the library. Then, "Oh, Din..."  
  
The lizard thing stepped toward me, oddly light and jaunty on its hind legs, its head cocked sideways. The eyes gleamed with a predatorial hunger.  
  
A tense minute passed, then I felt Rauru's hand on my shoulder and nearly jumped out of my skin. "By Nayru, what _is_ that thing?" I cried.  
  
"One of Ganondorf's creatures, I expect," Rauru replied. I glanced sideways at him. He was staring calmly at the lizard monster, bearing a small dagger in one hand. I looked back to the lizard and saw its eyes focused on the weapon.  
  
"Now you see why I forbade you to step outside," Rauru said, and threw the dagger.   
  
The lizard didn't even have time to cry out before the dagger imbedded itself directly in its throat. Dark blood spurted down its front and then it crumpled to the ground, the gleam leaving its yellow eyes. Rauru had closed the doors on it before it was completely dead.  
  
I gaped at him. "What did you...how did you...?"  
  
"Very easily," Rauru said. "I learned how to properly throw a dagger when I was just a cub- why, only your age."  
  
I only shook my head, still astounded.  
  
Rauru's gaze fell on me thoughtfully. "Would you like to learn?"  
  
"Me?" I stared at him, flabbergasted. "Goddesses, what would father think? What would Impa think?"  
  
"I think she'd be pleased. Good to know some way of defending yourself. Impa's no wilting flower, that's for certain."  
  
True, but Impa was Sheikah, after all. "Ladies don't learn those things," I said, sounding every bit the proper royal female. "Certainly not princesses."  
  
Rauru shrugged. "It's your choice. Still, I suggest you learn something if you ever want to see sunlight again. Do you think I'm going to let you out there with those things running around otherwise?"  
  
And he went back to the library before I could come up with a response, leaving me with plenty to think about.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 13.  



	13. Book

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Woot! New chapter! No writer's block or depression anymore! (As I said, it was probably hormonal.) Well, you should all be happy to know that this story seems to be traveling in a solid, steady direction. I more or less have the upcoming chapters planned out. There's still some middle stuff I have to figure out, but all in all I'm pretty good.  
  
Um, how many chapters? I'm sure people are wondering. Erhm...this is thirteen, ne? So I figure if all goes as planned...*is counting backwards now*...about ten or more from this chapter onwards. So expect twenty plus. Now this is of course keeping in mind that the chapters are all pretty short (and yes, they will continue to be short) so the story itself isn't as long as, say, _The Triforce United_.   
  
I'll stop boring you now, and continue the Hime Note at the end of the chapter (yup, more to talk about!). Read, review, enjoy, etc.  
  
***  
  


Chapter 13  
Book  


  
Barely a day passed before a new lizard-creature appeared on the grounds of the Temple of Time.  
  
"I'll have to put an enchantment on the grounds, I think," Rauru said as he casually slaughtered the thing with a small sword. (I was allowed to watch from the temple's threshold.) "Mine won't be strong enough to keep Ganondorf away, but at least it'll spare us these annoyances."  
  
A choked gasp escaped the throat of the lizard as Rauru coolly twisted the sword further into its back. Moments before, he'd simply snuck up behind it, making no noise on the damp morning grass, and plunged the sword between its shoulder blades. The creature slid lifelessly to the ground as Rauru turned to me, his hands covered in dark blood. I stared at him, torn between fascination and horror.  
  
Rauru paused to wash his hands and the sword in a trough beside the temple before entering. I shrank away instinctively.  
  
"How can you do that?" I struggled to keep my voice calm.  
  
"It's what I used to do" was the reply.  
  
"Kill things?"  
  
Rauru snorted. "Of course not. I was a soldier in the king's army, back in my day."  
  
_Oh, goddesses, _I thought. I'd heard this before. Any moment he was going to launch into "when I was your age…"  
  
But Rauru left it at that, and went to deposit the sword in the tiny library under the temple. Intrigued, I followed him.  
  
"I thought you'd always been a priest," I remarked, sitting on the top step of the ladder that led to the library.  
  
"Not always," Rauru said as he opened a wooden chest gilded with iron and placed the sword inside. Peering over his shoulder, I just glimpsed a multitude of weapons, daggers and swords and even a bow, before the chest snapped shut. "My troop rode around the field in peaceful times, making sure the law was followed. In wartime, we did stealth fighting." He paused for a moment and turned to me, eyes thoughtful. "That was _long_ before your time."  
  
"Did you serve under my father?"  
  
"Oh, yes." I stood back as Rauru climbed out of the library, panting with the effort of straining his old limbs. "He was very young in those days. We all were. Your father married old, you know."   
  
I did know. Most people in Hyrule married at older ages.   
  
"Rauru, when did you meet Impa?" I asked, remembering what Rauru had said about knowing her at a young age.  
  
Rauru frowned in memory. "Oh- I must have been twelve, maybe. Pretty young. She just showed up at the kingdom one day looking for work, and she was only eleven or twelve herself. She was slaving away over the palace laundry when I first saw her. It was a long time before she gained any status in the kingdom." Rauru shook his head, his eyes darkening slightly. "People didn't like her. She was a Sheikah, you know, and she had the strangest eyes you ever saw and a very quiet demeanor. She got into a lot of fights too, with the local lads."  
  
I scowled. That sounded just like my kingdom today- no scuffles, maybe, but plenty of gossip.   
  
"The king almost threw her out, too," Rauru went on. "Said it was causing too much trouble, having her there. But then there was the Goron War, and the Battle of Death Mountain's Feet-"  
  
"The one where my father and his troops were ambushed by Goron warriors?" I interrupted. Rauru stared at me, eyebrows raised. "Oh- I do a lot of reading," I added sheepishly.   
  
"Imagine a princess reading about wars," Rauru said wickedly as I blushed. "And yes, that was the one. Impa saw it that morning after your father had rode out, and she wouldn't shut up until a squad went out after 'em. They found the king and his men outnumbered five to one. Needless to say, if Impa hadn't said anything, your father would probably have died."  
  
I stared at him, wide-eyed. "I never knew that!"  
  
"Most people don't. They kept it pretty quiet. The whole thing was just plain weird- I mean, Impa saw it happen right in front of her eyes before the king and his men had even reached Death Mountain. That kind of thing doesn't attract good attention."  
  
"But she's Sheikah," I said, confused. "They see all sorts of things."  
  
"And who do you know that likes the Sheikah?" Rauru said bluntly. "No, better that the whole episode be hushed up. Even so, Impa rose highly in the king's favor after that, as you can imagine."  
  
"Where did Impa come from, anyway? Where was her clan?"  
  
Rauru shook his head. "I've no idea. Didn't she ever talk to you about her past?"  
  
"Never," I denied truthfully. "I asked and asked, but she refused to say a word."  
  
"Hm," Rauru said, frowning. Abruptly he turned from me and went back down the ladder to the library. I listened to him rummaging around below the library for a few moments, then abruptly he emerged once more, a thin book clutched in one hand.  
  
"In my life as a scholar and priest, this is the only book I've ever come across about the Sheikah," Rauru announced, handing the book to me. I stared at its dull, dusty surface, on which a simple titled was written: _Historie of Sheikah_. I opened it and began skimming pages.   
  
"But wouldn't you know- it's written in some strange language," Rauru added. "I've never been able to read it, no better than anyone else-"  
  
I glanced up at him, startled. "What are talking about? I can read it perfectly."  
  
Rauru stared at me. "You _what?"_ He snatched the book back and stared at it.  
  
"I can read it," I repeated dumbly, confused. "I was just reading a section about the very first-"  
  
"Do you have Sheikah blood?" Rauru demanded, interrupting me.  
  
_"What?"_ I cried, shocked. "Goddesses, no!"  
  
Rauru placed the book in my hands once more and jabbed a finger at the first section on the first page. "Read it," he commanded.  
  
I had to swallow several times before I mustered up enough voice to do so. "'Thus herein the first in the line of Sages records the memories of her people, the Sheikah, the Thousand-Year-Ones, born of shadow in a time before the goddesses themselves.'"  
  
Rauru grabbed the book again and snapped it shut. "I don't want you reading it anymore," he said shortly, tossing the book unceremoniously down into the library. There was a dull thud as it hit the floor.  
  
"Why not?" I demanded, frowning.  
  
"Princess, reading a book that no one else can decipher is never a good sign." Now he was hauling the stone that covered the entrance to the library back in place, severing my access to the book. "Did anyone ever teach you a Sheikah language?"  
  
"No."  
  
Rauru straightened with a small groan and wiped his brow, gazing closely at me. "Then mark my words, and keep away from it. That book is dangerous."  
  
Dangerous. By the goddesses, it was just a book. But Rauru would hear none of my arguments, and that was that.  
  
***  
  
As weeks passed and our supplies dwindled, Rauru began foraging outside the temple. Being quite the recluse in his old age, Rauru never enjoyed these excursions much, but they were necessary. Between two people, one of them experiencing the pains of growth, the meager store of food in the temple was in short demand. Rauru began visiting the market once or twice a week for an excess of food, though he never allowed me to eat more than I absolutely needed.  
  
"Believe me, princess, you'll be glad that I made you ration in a few years or so," Rauru told me gravely. "People are already moving out of the castle town, and when they're all gone where will we get our food?"  
  
After that I understood that he was storing, for my sake, and so I tried not to complain when I was hungry. Rauru ate little, and Link didn't need any food at all. Surely I could survive on rations.  
  
My thoughts dwelt on the Sheikah book. I could not move the stone over the library myself -it was too heavy- so I seized my chance one day when Rauru had the library open to finish cleaning it. He'd gone outside for water from the well when I went and grabbed the book, scrambled out, and hid it under Link's sleeping form. Rauru never moved him, or touched him for that matter, so I knew the book was safe.  
  
When Rauru went for food or other supplies to add to our store, I seated myself next to Link and delved into the secrets of the book.   
  
It was not at all like a normal history book. For one thing, it went backwards. It started with the most recent memories of the Sheikah and traveled back through their past, back through the oldest of their memories.   
  
It surprised me to learn that the book began with the extinction of the Hyrulean Sheikah. They had died centuries ago, everyone knew that. And according to the book, they had been the last clan born, though not the last clan dead. Others lived on, in places beyond Hyrule, and they were ancient clans. There was old blood in the Sheikah line. I was beginning to understand the title _thousand-year-ones_.  
  
The book never made it quite clear how the Hyrulean clan died. _"To shadow they were born, and to shadow they returned" _was all it said. It spoke not of their lives, either, nor of their behavior and way of living. Instead it spoke of their worship of shadow and blood and death, broken constantly with hymns and prayers exalting shadow. Finally the section on the Hyrulean Sheikah ended with this passage,   
  
_"Hence were the Sheikah born, in the first day of the first year of Hyrule's life, a nightfall after the goddesses poured their essence on Hyrule, thus creating light, and shadows."_  
  
The sections following spoke of every clan of Sheikah that had ever lived. Every section was the same- it listed their time of birth and death (unless they remained yet alive), and their location, then went on to their lives under the shadows. I felt like the book _was_ in a different language, in a way- I understood every word, and yet I understood none of it. Who are the Sheikah? This question remained unanswered for me. The secrets of the shadow people remained just out of my grasp, untouchable, unattainable.   
  
Months passed in the temple. I was steadily growing paler, weaker. I ate little and spoke less. Seeing the sun was no longer of importance to me. Every moment I could, every moment Rauru was not there, I was seated on the Pedestal of Time next to Link, reading the book.  
  
Six months soon passed since my imprisonment within the temple. So absorbed was I in the book that I hardly noticed how the time had flown. One day, when Rauru was yet again out foraging and I was yet again absolved in the book, I suddenly realized that I loathed the Sheikah.  
  
The feeling surprised me. I had never really hated anyone before- disliked people, or groups of people, but never hated them. Yet the Sheikah- I loathed them with a passion that was impossible to ignore. They were a horrible, horrible people. A people so immersed in shadow that to them, death was more important than life. Why the goddesses had chosen the first Sage of Shadow, of whom this book was authored, to be the very first sage was beyond me. Why the goddesses had allowed the birth of the Sheikah in the first place, was beyond me.  
  
Right in the middle of the book, quite out of place, was what I suppose one could call a family tree of the Sheikah. Or a forest, anyway. Each clan was its own tree- clans were classified according to their location, and listed were the names of each Sheikah born to that clan. The Hyrulean Sheikah had the smallest number- only six names.  
  
Scanning a clan that had resided in a land to the west of Hyrule, I found this name: Impa. The coldest of chills went up my spine as my eyes lighted upon that name. According to the sections I had read before, this book had been written and finished over a century before Impa could possibly have been born, and yet there she was. My mind refused to consider the logical argument that this was another Impa- I simply knew it was her, my Impa, my nursemaid.  
  
That was the day I closed _Historie of Sheikah._ I quietly went to the library, discarded it in the midst of a pile of books, and vowed never to read it again.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 14: Lesson  
  
***  
  
Hime Note Continued-  
  
Okee, so, what do we think? Good chapter? I still got it? ^_^;; Hopin' so.  
  
Yesh, I know, this chapter mostly involved a book. But bear with me, loyal readers. The book's an inspired thing and it does have significance, and it'll make an appearance later in the story. Believe me, these chapters in the middle here (the ones between those BIG events) all have significance. There's a lot of themes that are going to come back to haunt our young heroine, or otherwise lead to one of those BIG events. I have this story so well mapped! *happy dance*  
  
*WARNING* Stupid promo *WARNING*- The author of this story has recently discovered that she likes receiving e-mail from her readers. Like chatting up your fanfic authors? Got something to get off your chest? Want to tell her what a dork she is? Then e-mail at xlilyofharmonyx@aol.com and talk about whatever you want! Personal replies guaranteed!  
  
...Yeah, so, I'm in a weird mood today. ^_^;; Can you tell? Actually, the truth is that I've been Watase-ized. Anyone ever read her? Yuu Watase? She's the famous manga artist/author behind Fushigi Yuugi and Ceres: Celestial Legend. If you haven't read her stuff you definitely should, because it's very entertaining. And in her mangas she always writes little side notes, which I love reading, and have inspired me to write this. (Will this become a serial thing? Please, God, noooo!!!)  
  
Well maybe not, because I've already run out of things to talk about. But remind me, loyal readers, to talk about the Sheikah sometime because I find them very interesting. I just don't want to bore you to death right now. Oh and hey, share your ideas on Zelda related things in your reviews and e-mails! Your comments might make it into future chat sections (seriously!).  
  
Please forgive the ramble.  
  
Your sincere and silly resident fanfic author,  
Hime  



	14. Lesson

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
I figured it out! The reason that no one seemed to notice I'd put up a thirteenth chapter is because I wasn't actually _posting_ a new chapter, just replacing the "gomen" notice, and so my story didn't move to the top of the list in the Zelda section. *nod nod* That's gotta be it.  
  
Well, now you all have two chapters! Oh happy day! And you all owe me two reviews, mwa ha ha ha! ^_^ Actually, that's alright. You don't have to review twice if you don't want to (though it would make me so very happy… *puppy dog eyes*).  
  
The Hime Note's continued at the bottom. Oh my God, I think this thing's going to be serial! NOOO!  
  


***  
  
Chapter 14  
Lesson  


  
Five more of Ganondorf's creatures appeared before Rauru remembered to put an enchantment on the grounds to keep them away. This time they varied in species- two more lizards, two skeleton warriors, and a strange pig-man. Rauru taught me their names- Lizalfo, Stalfo, and Moblin, respectively.  
  
Rauru secured an enchantment on the grounds of the temple two days after my eleventh birthday. I'd let my birthday pass quietly -it seemed so unimportant to make a big fuss over it- though I admit I was a little hurt when Rauru seemed to know nothing of it. But I swallowed my pride and considered safety from Ganondorf's monsters my birthday gift.  
  
Rauru, concerned with my low weight and constantly pale visage, let me eat more at mealtimes. Only now did I realize how like a disease the Sheikah book had been. Rauru kept the temple's windows open every day in hopes that sunlight might banish my listlessness, but the sky was swirling with dark clouds. Monsoon season had come and gone, with eerily clear skies. I watched the backwards weather with growing apprehension.  
  
I also began to seriously consider learning some talent with which I could defend myself, if only because the walls of the temple were driving me crazy.   
  
"Look, you don't have to learn a weapon if you don't want to," Rauru told me impatiently when I talked to him. "There are other ways- evasion techniques, you know?"  
  
"Avoiding the enemy, you mean?" I said, frowning.  
  
"Exactly. Here, watch this." Rauru walked the length of the temple's main hall and back as I surveyed him closely.   
  
"Well?" he said, stopping before me.  
  
I shook my head, confused. "What was I supposed to see?"  
  
"Not _see,_" he said. "_Hear._ Did you hear anything when I walked?"  
  
"Your robe swished."  
  
Rauru grimaced. "Right. I'm not wearing the right clothes for this. Did my footsteps make any noise?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Well, there you go," he said with immense satisfaction.  
  
I didn't quite get it. It must've shown in my face because Rauru exhaled loudly, as if he thought I was being dense.   
  
"If I walked like that -wearing the right clothes, of course- would an enemy hear me sneaking around him?" he asked pointedly.  
  
I got the hint. "Oh! But…sneaking around your enemy…isn't that kind of cowardly?"  
  
Rauru shrugged. "If it is, I suppose that means I spent eleven months in a foot camp learning to be a coward," he said lightly. "But I told you that my band did stealth missions."  
  
"So you had to learn to walk like that."  
  
"Exactly. Sometimes you're outnumbered, or outweaponed, or you need to retrieve someone or something without making a big fuss about it- that's the sort of thing that stealth is for. It's not cowardice."  
  
"And will you teach me this?" I asked, intrigued.  
  
"If you want. It's a good enough alternative to learning a weapon, I suppose."  
  
Learning to walk without sound. It seemed agreeable enough. Yet little did I know just how much I was agreeing for. What I didn't realize was that this was the first step- the first step to fulfilling the promise I had by this time forgotten. The first step into shadow.  
  
***  
  
A week or two had passed before I realized that I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to let Rauru teach me something.  
  
The corner in which I stood was to the left of the door. I had been there since sundown, watching as the moonlight streaming through the temple's gilded windows glided slowly across the floor, marking the hours. It must've been almost midnight now. Rauru promised me that I would not eat if I moved even a muscle between dusk and dawn.  
  
My eyes left the floor to meet Rauru's. He was seated cross-legged in front of the altar, his sharp eyes fixed on me, watching for even a twitch of a finger on my part. The hateful glare I gave him was surely cold enough to freeze water, but it didn't bother him. "I used to teach new boys in the squad exactly what I'm teaching you," he told me when the lessons first began. "Their manners were much worse than yours- they would scream and curse and throw things. After molding those animalistic boys into the same kind of soldier I was, there's not much that can faze me."  
  
My legs were so stiff, I feared that if I even twitched I'd simply fall flat on my face. It had started exactly like this, only a bit easier- discipline, Rauru told me, was the first thing I had to learn.   
  
"Picture this, princess," he would say, giving me a scenario. "In the dead of night you're separated from your squad, and a group of the enemy's warriors, say, twenty goes marching by. Your only hope is a clump of bushes you can hide in. You go and crouch down so they can't see you and you think you're fine, but their sergeant picks _that _moment to do a roll call and make sure nobody's missing. They're an unruly bunch, so it takes them an hour to get into formation. Then there's one missing, so that's _several _hours to send out a few to go find the straggler. Your only hope of survival is to stay silent and still in those bushes until they're gone- so tell me, if you can't keep quiet and still here in the safety of the temple, how are you going to survive out there?"  
  
And he would make me stand silently, without movement, for as long as he designated. At first it was just an hour, two hours…and now I was waiting all night long. Three nights I had tried this test, and three nights I had failed- thus, I had not eaten in seventy-two hours.   
  
***  
  
I opened my eyes. The sun was shining through the gilded windows and Rauru was seated before me, cutting a wedge of cheese into bite-sized pieces, a shameless grin on his face. I tried to move and couldn't.  
  
"You fell asleep on your feet," Rauru said lazily without looking up. "That's all right, though. If you'd shifted in your sleep, or cried out, you would've failed." He lifted my right hand for me and placed four pieces of cheese in my palm.  
  
I suddenly realized that I was starving. It was an effort to lift my hand so I could clumsily deposit the cheese in my mouth, but it was worth the struggle. I chewed fast, swallowed, and held out my hand for more.  
  
"I take it I stayed still, then?" I asked in a raspy voice.  
  
"That's right." Rauru gave me the rest of the cheese and waited until I'd wolfed it down. "Try moving your legs."  
  
I took a tentative step and teetered dangerously, but did not fall. I cringed as feeling suddenly came back to my legs and crumpled to the floor.  
  
"Cramps?" Rauru asked, slicing an apple.  
  
"Pins and needles."  
  
Rauru ate a piece of the apple and gave the rest to me. I polished the slices off in record time, still ravenously hungry. "Stretch a lot. Stretch every day, anytime you can. Your muscles will get used to this. They have to. Otherwise, what's the good of learning how to stand silently if you can't move when the danger's passed?"  
  
"I thought I was going to learn how to walk silently," I said resentfully through a mouthful of apple.  
  
"All in time, princess. Try to stand again."  
  
I sighed and carefully stood. Balancing precariously on my own two feet, I took a few experimental steps.  
  
"Better?" Rauru asked.  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"Good." Rauru smiled. "You get today to recover and tonight to sleep. Tomorrow, you stand in that corner an entire day- twenty-four hours."  
  
"You must be joking!" I cried, almost in tears. "I can't do that!"  
  
"You'll do it or you won't eat," Rauru reminded me patiently. "You think this is the worst of it? Wait until I teach you balance."  
  
I broke down in tears right then, but it made no difference. True to his word, Rauru made me stand all day long after only a night's sleep and little food- I did this twice a week for two months until he was satisfied. From then, we progressed.  
  
As I said, I must have been out of my mind. It was the only logical explanation.  
  
***  
  
Continued in Chapter 15.  
  


***  


  
_Hime Note Continued-_  
  
Hello, dear readers. Feel free to skip this section at any point. It's just my inane babbling, no reason to read on if you don't want to.  
  
Today, I'd like to talk about the Sheikah, or my opinions on the Sheikah, anyway. Now as you can see, Sheikah obviously play a big role in this story. There's one thing I'd like to make clear regarding them- I am not, have never been, and probably never will be, the authority on Sheikah. What I know about them totals to almost zilch. So basically anything in this story (or my other stories) has been made up based on the very, very, _very_ limited info regarding Sheikah that can be found in OoT.  
  
I have a thing with Sheikah. I like them, and I like writing about them. They're interesting, you know? As Zelda puts it, they are "a people so immersed in shadow that to them, death is more important than life." Keep in mind that I made that up based not on a random idea, but the fact that shadow and death are indicated to be a big part of Sheikah life. Impa being the Sage of Shadow, and also the fact that the Shadow Temple is beneath the grounds that the Hyrulean Sheikah used to inhabit, is what clued me in to this idea. The Shadow Temple reeks of blood and death and wandering souls. Who put it there? Why is a Sheikah chosen to guard it?  
  
A "shadow people" are a necessary addition to a Zelda world. This is a world where people are chosen to be the very epitome of light and warmth and that sort of thing- and of course, wherever there's light, there must be shadow. Well, why didn't the creators of Zelda simply make Ganondorf the epitome of darkness and shadow and leave it at that? Possibly because, as I believe, there is no "evil" in shadow, darkness, and death. These things are a natural part of life. If you create a people who embody shadow, are these people evil?  
  
In my opinion, no. In Zelda's opinion, yes. In telling this story from Zelda's perspective, I have to get her point of view across. So why is it that the more Zelda learns about the Sheikah, the more she despises them? Simply put- Zelda, like Link, is an epitome of light. Shadow is her natural enemy.  
  
-Hime 


	15. Dream

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-_  
  
Hello, hello, loyal readers. Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. Actually, you should probably get used to it. From herein until the summer I'm going to be very busy with schoolwork and stuff so I might not get to post a lot. That's not to say that I'm going to stop writing, but I will have to cut back on my free time. If you live in New York State then you surely know the horror of the abominable Regents tests; if you don't live in New York, I envy you deeply. The only time I don't love my state is right around the end of the school year. Stupid tests. -.-;;  
  
I recently had an inquiry about the originality of this story, so I'll do a disclaimer- this story and all stories written by me are entirely original except in the fact that some are fanfics. To be honest I don't get to read your stories (my readers' stories) very much because my time is constantly in high demand and I think everyone wants chapters, so I devote more time to writing than reading. In fact, I haven't been looking at the Zelda stories on ff.net for a while. They're a little tiring, I think. Not many original ideas (I should talk, I know this story has been done a bunch of times). But is anyone besides me getting sick of seeing the multitude of "Ask So-and-So" fics in the Zelda section? Seriously, I'd like to know. Tell me in a review or write an e-mail to xlilyofharmonyx@aol.com.  
  
Well anyway, that's all for now. No Hime Note Continued this time, but possibly some reader comments next time! It's a short chapter today, but very profound. Enjoy.   
  
***  
  


Chapter 15  
Dream  


  
"Heel down first, then arch, then toes. Take it very slowly if you have to at first. The idea is to do it in one fluid movement, like this. Are you watching?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Are you listening?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Are you listening _closely?"_  
  
"Very closely, Rauru!"  
  
"Good. Watch." Rauru lifted the hem of his red robes so that I could see his old, gnarled feet and took a slow, careful step. Heel down first, then arch, then toes. I listened as closely as possible, but could hear no sound.  
  
"Forget whatever you learned about this tippy-toeing around," Rauru said, letting the hem of his robes fall once more, concealing his feet. "When you walk on your toes, or as you normally might, you're simply smacking the ground with the soles of your feet instead of easing into the footstep, like I showed you. Your feet are rounded, so think of it as rolling a ball. A ball isn't hitting the ground at any point, so it's not making a sound."  
  
"But it's not leaving the ground, either," I pointed out.  
  
"Well, that's the challenge. You try, now. Lift up your skirt so that I can see your feet."  
  
Obediently I knotted my skirt in a fist and took a slow, experimental step, placing my heel carefully down first, then following with the rest of the foot.  
  
"Wrong," Rauru declared before I'd even finished taking a step. "Look-" He grabbed my ankle, and I in turn had to grab his shoulder to keep from falling over. "See how the end of your heel is rounded? Don't just stomp your heel down. Start from the very edge of your sole-" He tapped the spot, "-then_ roll _the rest of the foot down, understand?"  
  
"I think so."  
  
"Good." Rauru placed my foot down. "Try once more."  
  
Rauru had me walk back and forth, the width of the temple, about ten times before he was satisfied. Each step I took was agonizingly slow- if I went any faster, Rauru would stop me, saying that he would undoubtedly hear me from a mile away. Privately I thought that was overstating it a bit, but was wise enough by this point not to share my opinion.  
  
"That's good for today," Rauru told me when I was halfway through another trek across the temple's width. "I can still hear you -I have very good hearing- but you'll improve with practice."  
  
_"I_ couldn't hear me," I said obstinately.  
  
"Hah! You think this is easy, huh?" Rauru jabbed a finger at the floor. "We're on a nice, smooth, polished floor here, princess. Wait until I teach you to walk silently on grass."  
  
"I can hardly contain my excitement."  
  
I had to admit, however, that Rauru's lessons were paying off. He was the most brutal teacher I'd ever had -none of the others had ever starved me if I'd done something wrong- but I was learning at such a fast rate that I surprised even myself. I could stand outside in the rain an entire night and not move or complain. A week or so ago Rauru had made me do just that, and my muscles hadn't even seized when morning came.  
  
Time was passing faster than I could have ever imagined it might. My twelfth birthday was to come in just four months. I had been in the temple for a year and a half now, though I could hardly believe it. Sometimes I had the feeling of being detached, as though the world within the temple was different from the world without, as though time was passing differently in the two places, but of course that was impossible.   
  
Ganondorf was keeping mightily quiet, for someone who wanted to destroy Hyrule. There was no word of my father or Impa. And Link needed a haircut. In the strangest of all possible worlds, things like that still needed taking care of. It made my life seem almost normal.  
  
Then I dreamed, the night after Rauru had begun teaching me to walk silently, and nothing was normal again.  
  
* * *  
_  
The wind that lifted my hair from my neck and whipped through my skirts was brittle and cold. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Link in the midst of Hyrule Castle's ruins, surrounded by piles of scattered human bones. Ghosts wandered aimlessly about- dull, lifeless figures with blank eyes, searching morosely in the ruin. For what, I didn't know.  
  
Link turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders, turning me so that I faced him squarely. He was not the Link sleeping in the temple, but the image of the man Link would become- fairly tall, broad-shouldered, but still light-footed, with hair like spun gold and eyes bluer than the sky.  
  
He said, "If you join them, you will never save Hyrule." His voice still possessed a boyish note.  
  
"Join who?" I asked, in a voice like that of a grown woman.  
  
The air rippled around me, and the scene changed. Now I stood in the Temple of Time, before the pedestal where the Master Sword had once rested, and I was bitterly cold. Before me stood a naked woman surrounded by a blue halo, hair white as snow, skin pallid with a blue tinge, black eyes like starry voids stretching on forever- as though the night sky had gathered in her eyes. She was so painfully beautiful that I could not keep my eyes on her.  
  
She said, "If you join them, you will never save Hyrule."  
  
"Join who?"  
  
She said, "They can do nothing. Only you can save them."  
  
Her voice was strong, fierce, and I did not dare doubt her.  
  
"Only you can save them," she repeated.  
  
I nodded emphatically. "Yes."  
  
"Only you." The woman faded, and so did the temple around us, melting into shadow.  
  
Then I heard another voice, a different voice, one that almost seemed to whisper from within me.  
  
"What is your name?"_  
  
* * *  
  
I woke then in the temple, gasping, shivering from a cold sweat, and could not for the life of me remember my own name.  
  
* * *  
  
Continued in Chapter 15.


	16. Balance

_A note from the Hime no Argh herself-  
_  
Hey hey, readers. New chapter, yadda yadda. Sorry if I'm kind of unenthusiastic. I just lost my job over something that was not my fault at all and I'm not feeling too glad about anything right now. But no self-pity trips, promise. Chapter 17 is in the works, but I don't know when it'll be done.  
  
Oh, I made a Zelda discussion forum. Anyone's welcome to join. Here's the URL, hope to see you there:  
  
http://darksheik.suddenlaunch2.com  
  
Enjoy the chapter.  


  
* * *  
  
Chapter 16  
Balance  
  


My amnesia was very temporary. Barely a few moments had passed before I remembered that I, of course, was Zelda, princess of Hyrule, prisoner -sanctuary seeker-within the Temple of Time. Exhausted by a day full of Rauru's harsh lessons, I had fallen asleep next to Link, whom of course slept on. I looked at him,wondering about the man I had seen in my dream. Was he really the man that Link would become? Would Link be that man, when he woke from his enchanted sleep?  
  
Logically, I thought that might be so. Link was growing, as was I. His feet looked too big for his boots. I removed the boots and wondered, in a motherly sort of way, how long it would be until he needed a change of clothes.   
  
Link's fairy slept by his head, looking no different than she always did. Link's chest rose and fell gently with each slow breath he took. His lashes, I noticed, were long and full. His mouth was curved into an almost-smile, as if he dreamt of something peaceful. I hoped that he did.  
  
Slowly, carefully, barely daring to breathe, I leaned close to Link and kissed him reverently on the forehead.  
  
"Wake soon, Link," I whispered to him.  
  
His mouth smiled. I sat back on my heels and smiled back.  
  
* * *  
  
Two weeks later I found myself on the great wall surrounding the castle in the dead of night- my first real excursion outside of the temple since my seclusion within.  
  
The wall was an enormous square enclosing the entire castle on all sides, including the town and the Temple of Time, with a lookout tower at each of the four corners. Rauru and I stood at the open window in the southwest tower, facing the expanse of wall that shut the castle off from Hyrule Field. I gulped as I leaned out the window, looking over the edges of the wall. On the right side were rooftops, just a foot or so below the wall. On the left side was the moat, falling away so swiftly from the top of the wall at it made me dizzy.  
  
I leaned away from the window, shaking my head to clear it as much as to say no."I can't do this."  
  
"You can and you will," Rauru replied calmly. "Or have you forgotten how patient I am?"  
  
"I'll surely fall!"  
  
"And what if you do? You've got the rooftops on one side -not much of a distance to fall there- and the moat on the other. Land in the water and you'll be fine."  
  
"I can't do this," I repeated emphatically.  
  
Rauru sat on the stone floor of the lookout tower with the air of one prepared for a long wait. "We can stay up here as long as you like, princess. Maybe Ganondorf'll pay us a visit, hm?"  
  
I closed my eyes, fighting tears. What I didn't want to admit was that I was afraid to be out here. Months in the temple -was it a year already? two years?- keeping myself safe had caused me to develop a nice, unhealthy fear of the outside world. How humiliating it was to think of the timid creature I had become.  
  
I turned away from Rauru and faced the wall squarely. It started here. To be bold, to be fearless- I had to walk across this wall. That was it.  
  
I swallowed hard, fighting down my dizzying panic, and put a hand on either side of the window to heave my thin frame through. I remained for several minutes on my hands and knees on the wall, which was barely half a foot wide, my eyes squeezed shut as I fought down the urge to throw up. I had never liked heights very much.  
  
Rauru, thankfully, was silent. At least he was letting me go at my own pace. I tried to catch my breath, failed, and rose very slowly to my feet, trembling everywhere. Standing was one thing. Taking the first step was another.  
  
"Arms out." Rauru's voice, gentle and quiet, was comforting for once. "You'll balance easier that way. Take it a step at a time- just one foot in front of the other, okay? That's all you think about."  
  
_One foot infront of the other._ All right. I took the first step, tentatively spreading my arms as though I were unfurling wings.  
  
"Good.Keep going. Don't stop, now- you won't be able to start again."  
  
_One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other._ I followed my mind's incessant chanting with my actions. To simply obey was easy. That was all it took.  
  
Halfway across the wall, I came to an abrupt halt. There was nowhere left to go- I had reached the drawbridge, which was much too narrow to walk across, at this time anyway. Now all that remained was to turn around and walk back across the wall to the safety of the tower. It was easy. I could do it. I could do it.  
  
I couldn't.  
  
I was frozen on the spot. A wind picked up, plucking at my hair and chilling me to the marrow. A mindless, unreasonable terror rose within me as I stared blankly, rigidly, into the space before me. Someone was speaking- a voice that came from within me, from far away, from everywhere at once. It was singing a nonsensical, horrid little rhyme. A hymn. An oath. An exaltation to shadow.  
  
I heard a sobbing. It was me. I was sobbing, terrified, in a muffled voice from far away. I was detached from my own body, sinking, drowning, losing myself. Falling away.  
  
Falling...  
  
I felt the shock of cold water and I was myself again, in my own body, immersed in the dark, murky moat. I swallowed a lungfull of the icy water and clawed my way to the surface. Choking, gasping and sputtering, I dragged myself ashore.  
  
Rauru was there within moments. He'd exited a door from the tower and apparently swam across the moat- his clothes were as wet as mine. He knelt beside me and placed a hand on my wet hair.  
  
"I didn't really expect you to keep your balance this first time," he said kindly. "You'll get better."  
  
The tears came again. I curled into a rigid ball and cried like a little girl who'd just woken from a horrible nightmare.  
  
"Princess?" I heard Rauru say, alarmed.  
  
"It spoke to me," I sobbed, over and over. "It spoke to me."  
  
Rauru put a firm hand under my chin and lifted it so that I was forced to meet his pale eyes. "Who?" he demanded. "Who spoke to you?"  
  
But by then, I didn't know. "I want to go home," I whispered, swallowing my tears. "Please. I just want to go home."  
  
Rauru was a wise man. He didn't question me further, didn't try to get an answer. Instead he merely wrapped his arms around me, lifted me as though he were as strong as someone half his age, and carried me all the way back to the temple.  
  
* * *  
  
I was allowed to bask in the sun outside the temple all the next day, with Rauru keeping a sharp eye on me from inside. His concern these days were not the monsters that served Ganondorf, but the possibility of human assasins- which Rauru's enchantment would not keep off the grounds. There was also every chance that Ganondorf himself might appear. The magic of the goddesses would keep him from ever crossing the temple's threshold again; Rauru's magic could not do the same for the grounds.  
  
"Keep your eyes and your ears open," Rauru had instructed me before he let me outside. "You hear so much as a footstep, you come bolting back inside, understand? And don't you dare even think of sneaking away, or you'll sorely regret it."  
  
I dared to ask a question that had been bothering me for ages. "Why am I so important? Why does Ganondorf want to kill me?"  
  
Rauru only shrugged. "Don't ask me. I'm just an ignorant priest. But Ganondorf, you know- with the Triforce of Power in his hands he's directly linked to the goddesses. Maybe the goddesses have their hands on you, and that's why he wants you dead."  
  
Lying on the steps of the temple in the high afternoon sun, I thought that sounded utterly ridiculous. The goddesses had their hands on me? For what purpose? Princess or not, I was just a little girl. A little girl imprisoned in a temple, helpless, scared silly. Jumping at every rustle of leaves in this bright afternoon.  
  
It was then that I realized that I was doing exactly what I had never wanted- I was living in fear. In fear of an attack, in fear of the jeopardy of my own safety, and yes, why not? In fear of the demons that seemed to be inside my own mind. For I had no doubts as to where those voices -those horrible, terrifying, and so oddly familiar voices- came from. They were buried somewhere inside my own self, in the depths of my heart, my soul.  
  
I thought back to those brief moments on the wall, walking across it with a feeling of weightlessness, of detachment. Once I had gotten my feet moving there was nothing to think of except a step, another step. There had been a fearlessness in that mindless state. Until the voices. Until I thought again.  
  
I went back into the temple and sought out Rauru.  
  
"Tired of the sun, princess?"  
  
"I want to walk across it again."  
  
"Across what?" Then he understood. "The wall?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
He stared at me with an expression I could not read. "You sure you aren't afraid?"  
  
"Positive."  
  
He needed nothing more. "We'll go back tomorrow night, then."  
  
And so we did. The next night, and the next, and the next after that. Time went on, an unbroken road, leading to a future I could not foresee, did not speculate. In the Temple of Time I was a withering flower, but under Rauru's no-nonsense care I grew, and by the time I passed my fourteenth year, I could walk across the inch-wide rafters crisscrossing just below the temple's ceiling without a care. Sometimes I felt that I was two Zeldas- one was the Zelda I knew, the fussy, prim little princess with whom I had grown up. The other was a stranger, an odd, silent young girl who walked like a ghost and moved like shadow. She was different. But she was still me. And for a time, my world was normal.  
  
Then I met him.  
  
But before I met him, I became someone new.  
  
* * *  
  
Continued in Chapter 17.


	17. Reflection

A note from the Hime no Argh herself- 

Hello, dear readers! At last I'm back amongst you all! Anyone remember this story?

*crickets chirping*

Ooookay…anyway, here's a new chapter for you, finally. I've done another estimation and I'm counting twenty-two chapters when the story's done. This of course is subject to change, but it's my best guess right now in case anyone was wondering. The rest of the chapters will likely be out pretty quick. I'm on a roll.

Zelda is advanced two years in this chapter, meaning that she's sixteen when it's over. Forgive me if it seems realistic, but I have to move time along. All the big stuff happens when our dear princess is older and I don't want to write a bunch of filler chapters. So sit tight; from here on in the story's going to build fairly rapidly toward the climax.

Enjoy!

*           *            *

Chapter 17

Reflection

I was fifteen, and I knew so much. 

A horror story came from the castle town: a mother of a three daughters witnessed her youngest, an infant, snatched from her cradle by some kind of horrible creature- like a rotting, emaciated skeleton with a gaze that paralyzed. The mother watched helplessly as the creature made off with her baby girl. The following night the infant returned- tottering on its own two feet, looking like an emaciated skeleton itself, and bearing a long knife, with which it murdered its two sisters while the mother watched, paralyzed again. The mother lost her mind. Night after night, her screaming woke her neighbors, until one of them silenced her at last.

Fifteen. I knew too much. I saw too much, heard too much.

Stories like this, unheard of in the days of my father's rule, were now common. Stories of horror and violence at the hands of the most monstrous creatures imaginable- Ganondorf's minions, no doubt. Rauru picked up all the gossip on his ventures into town and related every story he heard to me. It was important to keep on top of things, he said.

"But relying on gossip..." I said, frowning.

"Mark my words, princess, were you to step outside this temple you'd believe all those stories, too," Rauru replied sorrowfully. "The castle town- it's terrible, what's happened to it. Buildings abandoned or in ruins, people regarding everyone with suspicion, monsters roaming late at night-"

"I want to see it," I interrupted.

"Hm?"

I crossed my arms and looked Rauru squarely in the eye. "I've learned everything you deemed worthy to teach me. I can sneak around. I won't be hurt. So I think I should be allowed outside."

"Hn." Rauru looked at me speculatively for a moment, then showed me what he'd picked up at the market for me during some past visit- a long, hooded cloak and a gleaming silver dagger, encased protectively in a battered sheath.

"I got these the other day," Rauru said casually. "I knew this day would come soon, see, when you took hold of your independence. And that's just fine with me- but if you're to be going out of the temple, you must make me two promises."

"Which are?"

Rauru dumped the cloak into my arms and toyed with the dagger. "Firstly, you wear that cloak and you carry this." He placed the dagger into my open palm. I closed my hand over the hilt, feeling a rush of excitement -and apprehension- at holding such a lovely weapon. "The cloak's to hide you and the dagger's for protection. I know you can sneak around, but you never know what might happen."

I nodded. That made sense.

"Secondly, I want you to look for a disguise."

"A disguise?"

"Yes. Put those down for a minute." He indicated the cloak and dagger. "I need to talk to you about something serious."

Obediently I laid the cloak and dagger at my feet, then stared up expectantly at Rauru.

He knelt down so that our eyes were level. "Zelda," he began, using my real name- now I knew he was being dead serious. "I want you to think about changing your identity."

I gasped sharply. "Changing my- what? Rauru, what are you thinking? Surely we don't have to go _that far."_

"I'm afraid we do," Rauru said grimly. "Zelda, I can't protect you in this temple forever. And you won't want to stay here forever. You'll leave someday for good, and didn't Ganondorf swear that he'd kill you if you set foot outside?"

"But- but-" I shook my head, aghast. "There's not even a _sign of him, Rauru, he's disappeared-"_

"He's not disappeared," Rauru said sharply. "Look around you. Look at the castle town, slowly going to ruins. Look at the sky- rainy during the clear season, clear during the rainy season. Look at the monsters wandering around Hyrule. You think this is all some fluke? It's because of his influence. The things I've been hearing-" He hesitated.

"What?" I demanded. "What have you been hearing?"

Rauru sighed. "He goes from place to place. Spreads his evil over every corner of Hyrule. The Gorons, the Zoras, the Kokiri- they've all encountered him, and his darkness is slowly consuming their domains. I've no doubt that when he's finished with the rest of Hyrule, he'll return here to finish what he started.

"And what if you encounter him at some point? Do you really think he won't know you under a simple cloak? You think you'll be able to defend yourself with a dagger?"

I bit my lip. Rauru was right, of course. There was no arguing that.

"You see my point. And that's why I want you to change your identity. It's for your own safety."

My voice must have sounded so listless when I said, "How do I go about it?"

"Find yourself someone else's clothes. That's what I want you to look for, when you venture out." Rauru's sharp eyes watched me carefully. "Just find yourself a disguise, and I'll help with the rest."

*           *            *

I went out that very day. Swathed head to toe in the long, hooded cloak, bearing the dagger sheathed on my belt, I left the temple to ghost through the streets of the castle town and set foot in the market square for the first time in five years.

It was not the same place I remembered. The air seemed to thicken as I stepped into the square; the sky grew dark with clouds, and a light rain drizzled down. It was as though all the gaiety and life had seeped away- where once the laughter of children punctuated the animated noise of vendors hawking and customers bartering, there was now only a silence so heavy that I felt it pressing on my chest. The few remaining residents of the castle town trudged to and fro, shadowed eyes staring out of the depths of worn, tired faces. Pointed looks were directed at me; people turned to one another and began to mutter. I remembered what Rauru had said about them regarding everyone with suspicion. Self-consciously, I tugged the hood lower to further hide my face.

I was skirting the edges of the square, trying to avoid meeting the uninhibited stares, when a scream rang out from a corner of the square behind me. I whirled -as did everyone else- just in time to see a monster come stumbling out of the shadows of an alley.

I swallowed hard, fighting down the urge to vomit. It was one of the skeleton creatures Rauru had described- it had to be. Stooped over, half-rotted, with leathery skin shriveled so tightly on its form that every bone was visible, the monster staggered toward the center of the square, its eyeless face swinging blindly left to right. I saw market goers freeze in their tracks, rigid as stone, wide-eyed gazes locked on the skeleton, and remembered that the creature's eyeless stare could paralyze.

It began to turn its face toward me, and I reacted without thinking. Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I threw the cloak off, crouched down, and sprang up neatly into a back flip that landed me onto the edge of something- a building ledge, I saw as I opened my eyes for just a fraction of a second. For a moment I merely teetered, marveling at how wonderfully acrobatic my body had become through the years of Rauru's teaching.

The skeleton moaned, a horrible, mindless sound that sent icy chills up my spine. I risked a glance down and saw that it had chosen easier prey, staggering toward a gaunt young woman frozen in the middle of the market square. 

There was only one thing I could do. I slid my dagger from its sheath, gripping it tightly by the hilt, and whispered a quick prayer to the goddesses. Then I fixed my eyes on the skeleton below and threw the dagger. 

The creature shrieked once as the dagger embedded itself into the back of its neck, then slid to the ground, dead. The shocked cries of the freed townspeople reached my ears as I merely stood there, stunned by my own accuracy.

My reverie was broken by the townspeople's voices, wondering loudly who could have thrown the dagger. No one had though to look to the roofs. I slid away from the ledge before anyone did and made my way to the back end of the building, where I climbed down the drainage pipe. I skirted the back alleys on my way to the Temple of Time, feeling something between elation and shock, my heart drumming in my chest. So lost was I that I barely noticed when I took a turn onto a dirt road.

The shrieking of the wind brought me back to my senses as it whipped through my hair, sending a chill across the back of my neck. A great shadow had befallen me. Oddly calm, I looked up.

It was the castle. But not the castle I remembered, no, this monstrosity was a menacing fortress, dark and cold as ice, its peaked tower reaching to the heavens. Angry storm clouds swirled in the sky above it; a pool of molten fire boiled beneath it. Terror seized at me, swept through me and clutched at my heart. I thought I saw eyes staring at me through one of the distant windows.

I turned. I walked from the castle like a person gone mindless, and when I found myself again in the Temple of Time, three weeks had past.

*           *            *

I was lying on a cloak in the room that contained the door to the Sacred Realm. Link slept next to me, his face scant inches from mine, his hair so golden that it dazzled me for a moment. I stared at him, reached out a hand and touched his hair. He was fifteen, like me, and growing out of his clothes. Many of the seams had already torn. He was very handsome and already a few inches taller than me. I could tell when I stretched myself out next to him so that our feet were level but our heads were not. 

I looked at him sadly, wishing I could see his eyes. They were surely beautiful. His mouth was beautiful. I pressed two fingers to his lips, and they were warm.

"Princess?"

I stiffened and withdrew my hand immediately, then looked to the door, my cheeks stained crimson. Rauru was there, looking so relieved to see me that he probably hadn't even noticed what I was doing.

"Hello," I mumbled.

"_Hello?" Rauru stepped into the room, looking rather cross. "Three weeks ago you come wandering in here like a girl possessed and now, hey, I get a _hello. _Farore, Din, and Nayru!__"_

I stared at him, aghast. "Three _weeks?"_

"Yes, three weeks. What in the world were you doing that made you lose yourself for three weeks?" Rauru squatted before us, Link and I, and fixed me with his penetrating stare.

I thought about lying and decided against it. "I saw the castle." 

Rauru sat back on his heels, exhaling very slowly. "Oh."

I hesitated, then said, "I don't know what happened after that."

"Well, you came back here in only your dress, looking positively frozen. You went in this room, lay down next to Link, and went to sleep. I didn't know what to think." Rauru shook his head, sweat dotting his forehead. His matter-of-fact tone and attitude aside, I realized he really had been worried about me. "I've seen this kind of thing happen after a traumatic event. People go into a catatonic state. They don't want to deal with what they've seen or done."

"I suppose that's what happened to me, then." Odd how calm I felt, but then Link's presence always seemed to have that effect on me.

"Apparently." Rauru's voice quieted some as he looked at me again. "The castle, Zelda- it's terrible what happened to it, but it'll be reconciled. Everything will, once Link wakes up. He'll to put an end to Ganondorf's evil."

"I know he will," I replied softly.

Rauru frowned at Link. "Farore's mercy, but isn't this boy growing like a beanpole? Any day now his clothes'll rip right off him." He sighed and shook his head. "I have to get new clothes for him. I don't know where I'm going to find any like the ones he has on, though."

"Does it really matter?" I asked.

"I think it does," Rauru said gravely. "Imagine if you were Link- a ten year old stuck in the body of a goddesses-know-how-old man, not knowing anything, not remembering anything except pulling a sword from a pedestal. I'm sure that's how he'll feel. It would be best if there was _something familiar to him around, even if it's just his clothes."_

"I see your point." I thought for a moment, then brightened. "I can make clothes for him."

Rauru's eyebrows rose. "Can you, now?"

"Sure. I just need some green cloth and the pattern of his current outfit, which is right here." I shrugged. "I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but I'm not terrible, either."

"It's going to take an awful long time without a loom," Rauru pointed out.

"It's not like I have little time on my hands," I said dryly.

Rauru grinned. "Good point. All right, then. I'll get the cloth and you can sew."

It did take a long time without a loom. Many months, in fact. I made a tunic and skirt, copying the design of Link's clothes, a cap like the one he already wore, and white hose. Rauru went to the market and brought back boots for Link and a mirror for me. 

"So you can see yourself," he said frankly, when I asked about the mirror. "Link's not the only one around here who's grown up."

By that time I cared little about my own appearance, so Rauru propped the mirror against the wall in the room where Link slept, in case I ever decided to make use of it. I was too busy sewing to look. I was just past my sixteenth birthday when Link's clothes were finally finished. Rauru changed him while I waited outside, fidgeting. 

Rauru walked out when he was done with a cloak around his shoulders. "To the market again," he said to my questioning look. "We're low on food. Honestly, princess, you eat more than the soldiers in my old squad combined."

I scowled at him. "By the goddesses, I'm still growing, aren't I?" 

"You certainly are," Rauru said dryly, and left.

I tiptoed to Link's side to see how he looked. In clothes that actually fit he looked splendid, like the white knights that had once served my father, handsome and pure. A true hero. 

It made me wonder. What would Link see when he woke up and met me? Would he like what he saw? Suddenly worried about his opinion, I glanced around for the mirror and saw it standing to my left below one of the high windows. I went to it and peered at myself.

Rauru was right- Link wasn't the only one who'd grown up. A pale but unmistakably pretty girl -young woman, really- stared back at me. My hair, golden like Link's but paler, fell like silk across my shoulders and tumbled halfway down my back. My eyes were large and round, the deepest midnight blue, framed by long lashes. My body was like that of a young woman's, with a small waist and wider hips, my breasts just large enough to be noticed. I had developed late- my monthly cycle of bleeding had begun just a year ago. 

I smiled, and my reflection smiled back. I liked the way I looked. Surely Link would as well.

The vision hit me then with such force that I staggered back a step. Suddenly I was frozen in place, my gaze locked on my reflection's. A white halo burned around me- I could see it around my form in the mirror and around my own self through the corners of my eyes. Then blood was pouring down, raining from the ceiling, soaking me. My hair dripped with blood. Scarlet streamed down my face, down my shoulders and arms, staining my clothes. I tasted it on my lips. It ran into my unblinking eyes, tainting them crimson. 

I stared into the bloodstained eyes of my reflection, and watched in horror as its mouth opened.

"Soon."

The voice that emitted from its mouth was male.

"Soon."

Scarlet tears streamed from my eyes as blood pooled around my ankles. My reflection smiled.

Then with another staggering shock, I was myself again, my eyes blue, my hair and clothes and body free of blood, my reflection my own. A surge of nausea welled from the pit of my stomach. I tore from the temple and out onto the grounds, just barely making it before I fell to my knees and vomited in the grass. When I was done I climbed slowly to my feet again, shaking and shivering from a cold sweat, and went back inside. I staggered to the mirror and looked into it again.

Midnight eyes stared at me from a pale, gaunt face. Haunted eyes. I did not know myself.

*           *            *

Continued in Chapter 18.


	18. Seduction

A note from the Hime no Argh herself- 

Woot! Back amongst you all at last, with another astounding edition of AtoSY! No long preceding note this time. Just read, review, enjoy, etc. You know the drill!

*           *            *

Chapter 18

Seduction

"Rauru? Who is my mother?"

Rauru stared at me, obviously surprised. The question had hit upon me so randomly that it surprised myself. Still, when I thought about it, I supposed it was normal enough to wonder. I had never known my mother, for she had died giving birth to me. My father never talked about her. In truth, I had never really cared enough to ask before, Impa having always been my mother figure. But now Impa was gone, and I found myself wondering. 

Odd that I really knew nothing about my own mother, not even her name. I only knew what she looked like- there was a portrait of her in the great foyer in the castle. She was a small, dainty thing, delicately built, with blonde hair so pale it was nearly white and enormous, solemn eyes of a midnight blue. I had her eyes.

Rauru was silent for a long moment, as if considering his answer. "Her name was Onine," he said at last.

"Onine." I spoke the name thoughtfully. "Where did she come from?"

Rauru shrugged. "Couldn't tell you that, princess. Your father went away overseas when he was still a prince and came back with her in tow." He paused. "People hated her."

I frowned. "Why would they hate her?"

"For one thing, she was foreign," Rauru pointed out. "You know how proud our people are. Everyone expected your father to marry a girl from Hyrule, but instead he married Onine."

"Why shouldn't he marry who he wanted to marry?" I demanded.

"There was something odd about her, too," Rauru went on as though deaf. "People in the castle said that when she entered a room, the air seemed colder...she didn't blink at all...sometimes she would simply appear at moments when you least expected her; look over your shoulder and there she'd be. Onine." Rauru shook his head.

I felt a strange little chill go up my spine. "That's silly," I said irritably, trying to ignore it. "People want to make a spectacle out of everything."

"Maybe," Rauru replied evenly. "But I'll tell you this, princess- I came face to face with her in the castle halls one time. First time I'd seen her in close person. I knew who she was, of course, but there was no way she could have known me. Or anything about me, for that matter." Beads of sweat appeared on Rauru's forehead, as if talking about this meeting made him nervous. "But she never hesitated. She looked at me with those big, dark eyes and said, 'It consumes Lily.' Lily was my wife, you see." His mouth tightened. "Lily was being consumed, all right, by a disease that had struck her just that day. A week later I buried her. Your mother came to the funeral, and all the while her eyes were on me."

*           *            *

I never told Rauru about my vision, for fear that he might think I was losing my mind. Sometimes I wondered if that wasn't the truth. It was either that, or else there was some meaning to the blood and my crimson-eyed reflection. I didn't like to consider either possibilities.

After a few months had passed since my vision, Rauru began urging me to find a disguise again. I suppose he thought I'd had enough time to recover from the shock of the castle and was ready to venture into town again. I wasn't. I didn't want to leave the temple until Link woke up and banished the evil in Hyrule. Yet I wanted to help him, too, and to do so safely meant changing my identity. Besides, my skills were growing rusty. There were only so many times I could walk across the temple's rafters before it became rather dull.

Rauru had found my cloak during the three weeks I was sleeping, but no dagger. I suspected the townspeople had dumped it somewhere along with the body of the rotted skeleton creature. Rauru gave me a new dagger and told me to be careful where I lost it this time. In the cloak and armed with the dagger, I once again ventured outside.

The castle town was different yet- it was empty. Perhaps three bartering stands remained where the market square had once been so busy, and very few people were there to buy. I stopped at the stand of a clothes-woman who was busy packing her goods in the abscense of customers.

"Need help with anything?" she said when she saw me, straightening with a groan and fixing me with a sharp eye. She was like all of my poor people- gaunt, worn, tired. Suspicious of the world and everyone in it.

"I'll just look a bit," I replied from under the concealing hood of the cloak, and poked through the clothing that remained in the stand. They were mostly peasant dresses and work clothes. These were no good. Anyone would recognize me in them, peasant clothes or not. Rauru had said to change my identity- surely that meant I needed something radically different.

"Do you have any..." I paused, and went on tentatively, "Unusual clothes, like?"

"_Unusual clothes," the woman replied, lips pursed, staring at me as though my question had been highly odd. She coughed into her hand, bent down behind the stand, and heaved a wooden chest, gilded with black iron, onto the counter._

"I have these," she said, her gnarled fingers scrabbling to find the catch on the chest. "Most unusual clothes I've ever come across. Don't even remember where I got 'em from- probably traded some junk for 'em." She found the catch and pulled it; the chest sprang open.

I stared at the clothes. _Unusual was most certainly the word that came to mind. There was some kind of bodysuit, like the kind the castle guards wore under their armor, only this one was long enough to cover the arms and legs and colored a dark blue, matching my eyes almost exactly. There was also a white tunic, tattered and torn around the edges, with a highly odd symbol painted on the front- an eye surrounded by a halo, weeping one large tear. It was very ornamental, colored blood red. Looking at it, I was struck with a sense of recognition- the eye was the perfect match of the one painted on a tunic Impa wore._

"Sheikah clothes," I breathed reverently.

The woman leaned over the chest. "Is _that what they are? No wonder this costume's so odd. Look at that eye. Gives me the chills, it does."_

I agreed. "How much for the whole outfit?"

The woman's eyebrows raised. "You're gonna buy?"

"Yes, please," I said patiently. "How much?"

"You can have 'em for ten Rupees," the woman said doubtfully. "I don't care 'bout making much of a profit off these."

I paid the woman, swept the clothes into my arms, and left the market square. Into the deserted back alleys, my hands full and my thoughts somewhere else. Seeing the Sheikah clothes had brought back a sudden, painful longing for Impa. Six years and a few months since I'd last seen her. I wondered if I might ever see her again.

So preoccupied was I with these thoughts that I didn't notice the man who lurched out of a shadowed doorway and began following me. I had walked deeper into the maze of alleys before I finally realized that there were footsteps behind me.

I barely had time to drop the clothes and whirl around before the man was on me. My wrists were caught in a painful grip and his free hand stifled my mouth. I tried to scream and couldn't. I struggled desperately as the man dragged me to one side and shoved me against a building wall, wedging my arms at my sides and tearing away my cloak.

His hand briefly left my mouth before his lips crushed mine. I could smell heavy liquor on his breath. His tongue invaded my mouth, elicting another stifled scream. My fingernails gouged at his arms, but he paid no attention as he tore at the collar of my shift, ripping it down the front. My heart hammered in my chest. He was going to rape me, and I was powerless to stop him. My eyes darted wildly around the alley, seeking some form of salvation. There was none.

His mouth left mine at last and I breathed heavily. "Make a sound and I'll break your neck," he threatened, voice slurred. His hands were suddenly squeezing my exposed breasts. I uttered a small, choked whimper, tears welling in my eyes. I pushed at him, trying desperately to get away from him and this violation of my body. 

He pressed harder against me and suddenly I felt something hard and sharp digging into my waist. After a few moments of mindless terror I realized it was not his erection, but the dagger I wore sheathed on my belt. It was my only hope. I worked one hand to my waist while he was distracted by my breasts, trying not to alert him to my movements. My hand closed over the dagger; I pulled it free from its sheath and struck blindly. 

I felt the dagger sink into something soft a moment before the man gave a choked gasp, his movements freezing, eyes wide and rigid. I yanked the dagger free and struck again, and again, and again, wildly stabbing every part of him that I could reach. His mouth was open in a silent scream and his eyes were popping. Blood welled suddenly in his mouth and streamed down his chin, and then he slumped against me, his eyes going dull and blank. 

I pulled the dagger free one last time and shoved him away from me. He fell, hitting the dank cobblestones with a wet slap. I stared at him, at his blank eyes and the dark patch that was spreading through his clothes. My hands were shaking so hard that I could barely hold the dagger. I slid it into its sheath and noticed for the first time that my hands and arms were covered in his blood.

I don't know how I made it back to the temple. I vomited in the grass outside the temple, washed my hands as thoroughly as possible in the trough, then went inside and straight to Link's side. Rauru was gone- I didn't know where and I didn't care to know. All I wanted was sleep.

I lay down next to Link and noticed that some blood remained on my dress sleeves. I was tainted, a murderer, stained with the blood of another human being. The fact that he had attacked me was forgotten. All I knew now was that I was a monster. As I drifted off, the last thing I saw through eyes blurred with tears was the pile of Sheikah clothing, lying beside me. I must have brought them to the temple without realizing.

I couldn't care. My eyes closed, and I slept.

*           *            *

_I stood ankle-deep in a pool of water, stretching as far as the eye could see. The surface of the water was smooth as glass and clear as a mirror. I looked down and saw myself reflected perfectly. I was naked, my skin pale, my golden hair tumbling across my breasts. _

_I sensed another presence and looked up. A golden-haired man stood before me, naked as I was, my height exactly. He was slim, his shoulders my width, practically matching my building. I looked into crimson eyes._

_"Zelda." He spoke my name and the word rolled off his tongue, disappearing on a wisp of air, gone. I could not remember it myself._

_I felt a warm liquid streaming through my fingers and raised my hands to look at my palms. Scarlet blood streamed from twin gashes. There was no pain. I looked at my companion again, meeting his eyes levelly._

_"Whose blood is this?" I asked him. Again the words seemed to disappear, as though they were of no importance._

_He took one of my hands in his, raised it to his mouth and slid his tongue across my palm, licking the wound clean. Painstakingly he lapped at my hand and sucked my fingers until not a trace of blood remained. Every drop he swallowed._

_He smiled at me, lips crimson from my blood, like a predator whose hunger was satiated. I stared at him in fascination._

_"Whose blood is this?" I asked again, my voice so small to my ears._

_"Mine," he replied. "The blood is mine." His words wrapped softly around me, lingering, echoeing in my ears._

_"The blood is mine."_

_"No," I whispered, eyes closed, my plea weak and insignificant._

_"The blood is mine." His voice wrapped around my mind, paralyzing me with something between fascination and terror. _

_The predator was present in his voice when he whispered, "So are you."_

*           *            *

Continued in Chapter 19.


	19. Eyes

A note from the Hime no Argh herself-

Hello, dears. Welcome to another chapter of ATOSY…BWA HA HA HA! Ahem. Anyway, yes, it's a new chapter, yes, I'm almost done with the story, and yes, I should be uploading the next chapter fairly soon. You guys are stuck reading Chapter 19, but I'm already on Chapter 22, HAH! Well, I'll have more for you very soon. I already wrote the climactic chapter so I'm pretty much past the hard part and it's smooth sailing (I hope) from here on in. So enjoy this while you can, because it'll soon be over…but now I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's Chapter 19, have fun!

* * *

Chapter 19

Eyes

"Zelda?"

A quiet, worried voice entered my troubled sleep. I opened my eyes and saw Rauru's face. He was pale and sweating, leaning over me to look into my eyes.

"There you are." His voice was as calm as always, but when he helped me sit up it was with hands that trembled.

I looked around, dazed, wondering for a moment what had happened and where I was. I saw the familiar walls of the temple around me and the reassuring sight of Link beside me before memory struck. Bringing my knees to my chest, I buried my face in them and struggled not to cry. I could smell blood on my clothes.

"Zelda?" Rauru said again, resting a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. "Don't touch me," I mumbled. "I'm a murderer." Remembering my dream briefly, I wondered. I looked at my palms. There was no trace of wounds there.

Rauru gripped my shoulders before I could hide my face again and turned me so that I was forced to look into his eyes. "Tell me what happened," he said firmly.

"I killed a man," I whispered, wanting sleep again. Why couldn't he find someone else to interrogate?

"I can see that. Your clothes are stained. Now, why would you kill a man?" Rauru watched me very closely, his expression never betraying his emotions.

"He tried to rape me," I said dully.

"I see." Rauru stood and tugged on my hands until I stood as well, reluctantly. Without a word he led me out into the temple's main hall, where piles of food and water-skins lay on the red carpet in the aisle.

Rauru gave me a water-skin. "Drink up," he ordered.

I obeyed, rinsing my parched mouth and throat. Rauru handed me an apple. I stared at it dumbly, trying to remember what to do with it.

"Eat," Rauru reminded me gently.

I shook my head and gave it back. There was no food that could get past the lump in my throat. Rauru took the apple without argument, placed it on top of the pile of food, and gently pushed on my shoulders until I sat on the temple's floor again. He sat cross-legged before me and peered directly into my eyes for several long moments.

"Do you know what the difference is between self-defense and murder?" he said at last.

I didn't answer, only stared at him.

"Murder is the killing of another creature for no good reason. Self-defense, on the other hand, is something one does to protect oneself," Rauru explained. "And that is a very good reason. You protected your virginity from the man who tried to rape you. This does not make you a murderer. He tried to hurt you and probably would not have stopped unless you killed him. Your only chance of protecting yourself was to kill him. Therefore, your action is justified. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"Remember, you were the victim of his actions. His actions forced you to kill him. Would you have hurt him if he didn't attempt to rape you?"

"No," I mumbled.

"Then you were forced," Rauru said, nodding. "As he would have forced you to engage in intercourse with him had you done nothing. This isn't your fault. The victim is never at fault. Understand?"

I nodded.

Rauru sighed. "I don't believe you, but given time to think, you'll see the sense in my words. Just trust me when I say you aren't at fault. Now-" Rauru handed me the apple again, "-try eating a bit of this."

I obediently took the apple and managed to swallow a few bites.

* * *

Rauru had me change my clothes, then sent me back to sleep for the rest of the night. He woke me in the morning and made me lie in the sun all day outside the temple. Under the blue sky I did indeed begin to see the sense in Rauru's perspective. I was sorry for killing the man in the castle town, but in my heart I knew that I would be much sorrier had I let him rape me.

Around noontime Rauru came to see how I was doing under the pretense of bringing me food. As I stuffed cheese in my mouth he asked, "Feeling better?"

"Yes," I said, my mouth full. I swallowed the cheese and added fiercely, "I _wish_ I could do something about Ganondorf. His evil is tainting everyone and everything."

Rauru sighed. "Unfortunately, princess, evil like the kind you encountered last night has always existed. It doesn't take a tyrant king to bring out that evil in everyday people." He shook his head. "I never understood why the Hylians don't train their daughters to protect themselves. Others do. All Gerudo women, whether they become warriors or not, are trained in the glaive to protect their vitue. The Zora teach girls to use the sharp ends of their fins in self-defense."

"How do you know this?" I asked, startled.

"My squad went everywhere in Hyrule." Rauru's eyes darkened. "Not every soldier was a good boy. Some attempted rape on the foreign women, but they usually learned the error of their ways."

"Maybe when I'm queen, you could teach the girls self-defense," I suggested. I smiled a bit. "The goddesses know that your lessons will stick."

Rauru smiled in response to my gentle teasing. "I'm honored, but I doubt I'll be around when you're queen. Once Link wakes up I'll have served my purpose on this earth."

I stared into his eyes, astonished, and realized that he was being utterly serious. "You don't mean- surely you won't _die?"_

"I think of it as trancendence," Rauru said loftily. "When I'm done serving Link I'll go to serve the goddesses. They are forever in need of their pets." Seeing that I continued to stare at him stupidly, Rauru added with a small smile, "I'm a sage, princess. Awakened all of two days." He added a little flourish.

I was so astounded that I could do nothing but gape, my mouth opening and closing like a fish, for several minutes. Finally I squeaked, "Sage?"

Rauru nodded.

"You?"

"That's right," he confirmed.

I gaped for a while again, then finally managed to blurt out, "Is _everyone_ I know a sage?"

Rauru grinned. "Couldn't tell you that, princess. I don't know who the other six are. Well, besides Impa, anyway."

"Other six?"

"When sages are awakened, they always number seven. I thought you knew your legends," Rauru teased.

"Your temple?" I asked stupidly.

"The one we live in." Rauru indicated the Temple of Time. "I've done my duty by protecting this temple and the Hero of Time. When Link wakes up, I will be called to the Sacred Realm to carry on serving Link by lending him my power. When Link has defeated Ganondorf, I'll do whatever the goddesses wish of me." Seeing that I was gaping at him again, Rauru smiled. "Being awakened is like having the fog of destiny lifted. Suddenly one knows all that one will do."

"Are you immortal?" I asked.

Rauru laughed. "A rickety old man like me? Who'd want to live forever if they were already _half_ my age?"

"So you will die."

"Eventually, yes."

"Do you have to live in the Sacred Realm until then?"

Rauru shrugged. "I wouldn't say it's matter of having to. It's simply my path. I've no problem following it."

I fidgeted a little, looking at my hands, my cheeks reddening. "Won't you miss me?" I mumbled at last.

"Terribly," Rauru said, his tone completely honest. "I can't imagine how boring these seven years would have been without you around." I looked at him, surprised, and Rauru smiled at me. "I think you'll get on without me, princess. You'll be helping Link, won't you?"

"Of course," I said primly. Helping Link was mypath, I was sure. "I'll do what I can...though I'm not sure what that is," I said dolefully.

Rauru patted my knee and climbed to his feet. "I'm sure you'll do just fine," he assured me, then turned go back inside.

I thought of something else. "Rauru."

"Yes?" He turned back.

"What are you the sage of?"

Rauru smiled. "Light."

That explained it. Now I knew why the world seemed just a bit warmer, why everything seemed less harsh, less jaded, when Rauru was there. He was light, and if I ever doubted the existance of sages before that moment, I did no more.

I suppose it was then that I realized just how close I was to the old man- closer to him, perhaps, than to anyone I'd ever known, and that included Impa. Rauru was my guardian, my caretaker, my teacher. He'd taken me in without question, cared for me as I grew up and taught me many marvelous things. And despite clashing with him, and yes, even hating him at times, I knew that I would sorely miss him when he went to the Sacred Realm. Yet it was his path. He had chosen to follow it and was content, and so I was happy for him.

* * *

I thought that Rauru might not have noticed the clothes I'd brought home with me, but when I went back into the temple he was going over them with a critical eye. "Good choice," he said absently as I entered. He glanced up at me, a tiny smile lingering around his mouth. "You know these are male clothes, right?"

I made a face. "Great. I can't even pick out clothes right."

Rauru shook his head. "No, this is good. It's much harder to guess a person's identity when they're dressed as someone of the opposite sex." He rose to his feet with the clothes in his arms, giving me the same careful going-over that he'd given my disguise. "You could play a boy," he said finally. "A pretty one, to be sure, but a boy nonetheless. You'll just have to cut your hair, bind your breasts-"

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "I never said I was cutting my hair, and excuse me? Bind my breasts?"

"Or you could stay a dainty girl and let Ganondorf kill you. It's your choice." Rauru dumped the clothes unceremoniously on the floor.

I rolled my eyes. "Farore's mercy, stop being difficult!"

"_I'm _being difficult? Hah!"

I bent to gather my disguise in my arms. "Just tell me what I should do."

In response, Rauru gave me several rolls of linen. I stared at them, then at him, then at the linen again (several times), utterly flabbergasted. "For your chest, princess," Rauru sighed, as though he thought I was being dense. "And your hair. And whatever else you want to do. Be creative." He pointed to the room where Link slept.

I went there for privacy, feeling self-conscious about changing in front of Link. But that was silly, I scolded myself, for it wasn't as though he were awake to see me. I spread the Sheikah clothes out on the floor, chewing my lower lip thoughtfully as I stared at them. Then I shrugged out of my shift and slipped into the long blue garment, pulling the tattered white tunic with its blood-red, weeping eye over my chest. I then went to look at myself in the mirror.

I frowned at my reflection. I was Princess Zelda in a Sheikah costume. Surely this wasn't what Rauru meant when he said to change my identity.

I pulled the white tunic off, then picked up one of the rolls of linen and began wrapping it tightly around my chest. Such abuse was quite painful, and I could only thank the goddesses that my breasts were small. When that was finished I picked up another roll of linen, pinned up my hair and wrapped it with the cloth as though I were bandaging a head wound. I went and looked in the mirror again; with my breasts bound flat and my hair pinned under the linen so that just enough escaped to fall over my left eye, I looked like a boy indeed.

I wrapped linen around my forearms, then, in a stroke of genius, around the tips of my fingers so that I would leave no fingerprints where I went. Finally, a length of cloth went around the lower half of my face, covering my mouth and nose. With the makeshift mask and my hair covering more than half of my face, only a single, solemn eye was visible. I smiled under the mask. Now I was unrecognizable.

I crept out into the main portion of the temple, using the skills Rauru had taught me to move without sound. His back was to me, but he heard me -or rather, sensed my presence- at the last moment. He turned and stared at me.

"It's very good," he said at last.

"But?" I said doubtfully.

Rauru pursed his lips. "Your eyes, is all. I mean, no one would recognize you unless they knew you very well, but still..."

"By the goddesses, they're the eyes I was born with," I said irritably. "What can I do about them?"

"I can use a spell to change them," he remarked.

I stared at him. "You _what?"_

"I told you my squad did stealth fighting, yes? Sometimes that required disguises." Rauru shrugged. "I learned this spell a very long time ago. It's not difficult to work. It just requires a trick of light and illusion- it's as though you're putting a veil of color in your eyes, so that you don't change the original eyecolor but merely implant another over it-" Seeing that I was staring at him blankly, Rauru stopped and smiled wryly. "Don't worry, you don't need to know how it works. It can be done."

"But how do I get my original color back?" I asked in a rather panicky manner.

"Once the spell is in place, all you have to do is order your eyecolor one way or the other." Rauru stroked his white beard thoughtfully, staring at me. "Now, what color would you like? And don't tell me 'light blue' or something like that, let's have a little variation, hm?"

"Red," I said without hesitation.

Rauru stared. "_Red?"_

"It's Impa's color," I replied, and as soon as I did I realized it was so. It was funny, though- I hadn't even been thinking of Impa when I chose. I hadn't been thinking of anything.

Rauru nodded thoughtfully. "So it is. All right, then." He rubbed his hands together, shook out his arms, then placed one hand over my eyes. "Close your eyes," he ordered, and I did so, my lashes brushing his palm. "Now, this may hurt a lot."

"It what?_" _I yelped, but then Rauru took his hand away, grinning wickedly.

"Done," he announced.

I glared at him. "That's _very_ funny, Rauru."

"I thought so," he said loftily. "Go and look at yourself!"

I crept rather hesitantly to the mirror, propped up against the wall in the room where Link slept, and peered into it. A stranger with eyes of the most vivid crimson, like fresh blood, stared back at me.

"Nayru defend me," I whispered, amazed.

"Pretty nice spell, isn't it?" Rauru had come up behind me to gaze into the mirror as well. "I look at you now and even _I _don't know you. You could fool anyone in that disguise."

"I guess I did a good job then!" I declared.

Rauru grinned. "For once." He clapped me on the shoulder affectionately, then turned and left me alone with my reflection.

I gazed silently at the boy in the mirror. A moment or two passed, and then, slowly and carefully, I stepped to the mirror and reached out a hand. The boy imitated my movements and we touched, fingertips to fingertips, separated by nothing more than an inch or so of glass.

"Hello," I whispered to my reflection, staring into crimson eyes. "My name is Sheik."

* * *

Continued in Chapter 20.


	20. Reunion

A note from the Hime no Argh herself- 

Another new chapter in all of four days, isn't that amazing? ^_^ Well, I'm just about finished with this story, all though you guys have a ways to go. I'm thinking probably twenty-five chapters in all. Nice round number, hee hee. Anyway, this chapter's pretty long so I hope you guys are happy. Enjoy.

*           *            *

Chapter 20

Reunion

It's strange, how my mind worked back then, at age sixteen. The vision, the dreams that terrified me so much- they slipped so easily from my mind, as if they'd never occured. No, I saw no connection between my choice of red eyes and the crimson-eyed apparition who appeared in the vision and dream. Nor did I think it odd that the name 'Sheik' simply popped into my mind. It was appropriate enough, just a shorter version of 'Sheikah'.

In the meantime, I had my identities. Sheik. Male. Sheikah race. Zelda. Female. Hylian race. Two completely different people.

And what does it mean, when one person possesses two identities? 

Which is the true identity?

*           *            *

I loved my disguise. In fact, I never took it off. It was wonderful, how easy it was to move in the form-fitting clothes. I ghosted from place to place, silent and unnoticed. In the castle town, lingering in the shadows of dark alleys, flying atop the roofs of buildings, balancing on ledges. Seeing everything, unknown.

When I did venture into the midst of other people, I feared being recognized no more. People spoke to me as a male; they whispered about me, thinking that I was Sheikah. Of course, there weren't many people in the castle town anymore. It was all but completely deserted- in another few months, Rauru predicted, the town would be empty.

Monsters made up for the lost population- mainly the rotted skeletons. They were no threat to me. I had simply to sneak around them and avoid their gazes. I wondered, though. Their victims were people, and often I thought it probable that they could smell living flesh. Yet they never noticed me. I could practically walk through a crowd of them, without fear of their paralyzing gazes.

Still, it didn't trouble me for long. I was suddenly invincible among even the worst of monsters. What had I to worry about?

During this time, this month or two, I experienced what I had always strived to be. I finally learned the meaning of fearless.

Then a messenger came from Kakariko Village, and in the time that followed, I relearned the meaning of fear.

*           *            *

Rauru threw open the doors of the temple and came stomping in, dragging a yelping boy by his ear. Perched on one of the rafter beams criss-crossing high above the floor, I stared down at them, astounded. Six years and several months I had spent in this temple, and never, not even once, had we received a visitor.

I leapt from the rafter and landed with perfect balance on my feet, in the middle of the aisle before Rauru and the stranger. The boy stared at me, his doe-brown eyes bulging, mouth agape in shock. He was obviously a peasant, a goatherd or such, dressed as he was in tattered clothes, his tan skin heavily freckled, hay tangled in a mop of blond hair.

"Who is _this?" I demanded of Rauru._

"I was just about to ask the boy that very question," Rauru replied calmly, but the boy interrupted.

"Did you see that! He fell from the ceilin', he did! An' you didn't even get hurt! How'd you do it?"

Rauru swatted the boy's ear. "This is no time for chattering, master," he growled. "Who are you, where are you from, and what are you doing skulking around the temple? And Farore have mercy if you lie, scoundrel."

The lad gulped. "Th-they told me to fetch the lady Zelda an' bring 'er to the village. Didn't tell me why, only that it was real important, like."

"Which village?" Rauru demanded. "Kakariko?"

The boy nodded eagerly. "Somethin's been amiss in the village, sir. Nobody tells me nothin', but somebody's come and everyone's real excited 'bout it. I heard 'em say that she wanted to see the princess-"

"Who?" Rauru asked sharply. "Who wants to see the princess?"

"I dunno. Nobody tells me nothin'," the lad repeated peevishly.

"Are you working for Ganondorf?" I demanded.

His wide eyes darted to me. "Din strike me if I was ever workin' for him!" he cried. "I spit at that name! Only I won't now, 'cause it's a temple an' all," he added quickly.

"He's telling the truth," Rauru sighed. "There's no dark aura around him."

"How do you know?" I demanded.

Rauru smiled half-heartedly. "Sage, remember?"

The boy's eyes bulged. "Yer a- yer a _sage? Nayru defend me! I was scared when they told me I was to be fetchin' a princess but no one ever said nothin' about a __sage-"_

"Her Highness is unavailable at this moment," Rauru said loudly, cutting the boy off. "Sheik, here-" He gestured to me "-will go in her place."

The boy stared at me doubtfully. "You sure? They told me to bring the princess an' no one else."

"I don't care what they said," Rauru replied peevishly. "We have to consider the princess's safety. Take him, or no one at all."

"All right, but if they get mad I'm sayin' it's your fault," said the boy frankly. I followed as he turned and headed out of the temple.

Rauru caught my arm as I passed him. "_Be careful," he whispered urgently. "If anything seems wrong -anything at all- you come running home, you hear me?"_

I swallowed hard, trembling slightly with a sudden chill, but my voice was level when I replied. "I'll be fine, Rauru, don't worry about me."

"I hope so," Rauru said bluntly, letting me go. I shook my head at his pessimism and followed the messenger-lad out into the sunshine.

*           *            *

The journey to Kakariko Village from the castle town is brief- a skirt of the outer wall, over the moat, up the stairs carved into the mountain. In minutes I found myself in Kakariko for the first time in six years. 

It was the same village I remembered, and it was not. New buildings had sprung up amidst those already nestled in the small town. The windmill clacked overhead. Villagers tiptoed quietly about, as though afraid of disturbing the small peace Kakariko enjoyed. I stood in the middle of the town and trembled, unshed tears burning in my eyes. It had been so long. So terribly, terribly long.

Kalen, the headman's wife, came to meet us. I recognized her from the fiery determination still possesed within those cornflower-blue eyes, but her cropped brown hair was streaked with gray, her face worn from fear and suffering. She did not know me.

"Who is this?" she demanded sharply of the young messenger, staring at me with distaste. "We told you to fetch the princess!"

The boy shrugged. "I went to the temple, like you said, but the lady Zelda warn't there. They sent him in her place."

I met Kalen's hostile glare levelly. "I'm a close friend of Her Highness," I said calmly. "For her own safety she cannot leave the temple, but she trusted me to come in her place."

"Why're you masked, if you're such a good lad?" Kalen demanded.

I bowed my head and replied truthfully, "For my own protection."

"Hn." Kalen gazed at me speculatively for a moment, then turned on her heel and marched off. "Come on."

I followed her through the town to her own house, my nerves humming and my heart pounding. I don't know what I expected to see, but when Kalen ushered me into her house and into the plain kitchen with its rough wooden table and chairs, it was as though I had known all along who was waiting for me, seated at the table.

I froze and I stared. "_Impa?"_

The Sheikah turned her fierce red eyes to me. She was thinner than I remembered, and her lustrous silver hair was streaked with white, but when she stood she was still the towering, beautiful goddess of my memories. She stared at me, and for just a moment her eyes betrayed her bewilderment.

"Brother?" she said wonderingly. Then the truth dawned on her face, and her eyes widened.

"Zelda!"

"Impa," I said, trembling. She looked like she had barely aged a day, let alone six years. There was weariness in her eyes, even fear, but the ferocity of a Sheikah warrior still dominated her features. She looked enraged, and I was dazzled.

"What in Din's name are you doing in that get-up?" she cried.

In a faraway voice I replied, "It's my disguise, Impa. Don't you like it?"

"Like it...!" Impa grabbed my shoulders and pushed me into a seat, then sat down across from me, looking very flustered. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. I stared at her as though enchanted, waiting.

Finally she opened her eyes and looked at me. "Zelda," she said, very gravely, "this is dangerous."

"What's dangerous?"

"That." Impa waved a hand at me. "Your disguise."

"It's for my protection," I said, adding childishly, "Rauru made me do it." I hid trembling hands in my lap.

Impa shook her head. "I'm glad you're trying to protect yourself, Zelda, but _that...that is no protection at all. You're already vulnerable as it is-"_

"Vulnerable to _what, exactly?"_

"To shadow."

When she spoke these words, I knew they were true. I had always known them to be true. 

"Why?" I said, frightened.

"Zelda..." Impa hesitated. "Goddesses, Zelda, don't you know anything about your mother?"

"Onine?" I asked, confused, wondering what my mother had to do with it. "Rauru told me a bit about her. He said people didn't like her."

I saw Impa swallow. "Zelda, I would never speak wrongly of your mother, for more reasons that one. But her heritage..."

I looked at her and I knew. Immediately I felt the blood drain from my face.

"She's a Sheikah," I whispered.

*           *            *

After all was said and done, I somehow made it back to the temple. I felt numb inside, devoid of emotion. Impa's words replayed again and again in my mind, chilling me to the marrow.

"I always knew, Zelda. I knew from the time you were a little girl that shadow wanted you. That's why I insisted on being your nursemaid, until your father finally gave in. No one trusted me. They didn't realize that all I wanted to do was protect you. But, Zelda, we have been apart too long. I have no power over you now. I fear it is too late."

It wasn't true. It couldn't be. I would go and seek out the evidence I needed, to prove once and for all to Impa -no, to myself- that I was not the daughter of a Sheikah.

I went to the temple. It was empty and bitterly cold. I never hesitated, but went straight to the small library beneath the Temple of Time and searched until I found what I wanted. I carried it up to the main hall and set it on the red carpet before the altar.

It was the shadow book. The _Historie of Sheikah._

Immediately I turned to the clan tree in the middle of the book, the section that listed every Sheikah clan, its location, and those who had been born to it. Impa had told me that my mother came from the Marek Highlands to the west, born of the only Sheikah clan to inhabit the great mountain land, brought to Hyrule in her fifteenth year of age. I found the list of the Marek clan. I skimmed through the names, and found my mother's.

Onine. She was there, one of the last names listed. So it was true. My mother was a child of shadow.

Still I did not want to believe, but in my heart, I knew it was true. I was about to close the book when something else caught my eye.

It was the list of the Hyrulean Sheikah. The clan with the fewest names in the book. I knew because I had memorized this list and the names on it, curious about the shadow people who has once resided in Hyrule. Before, there had been only six names. Now there were seven.

_How was it possible that another Sheikah was born to Hyrule?_

I looked closely at the name, and my blood froze in my veins.

It was Sheik.

*           *            *

Continued in Chapter 21.                   


	21. Lost

__

A note from the Hime no Argh herself-

Well, readers, this is it. You know, _that _chapter. The climax. The turning point. THE BIG ONE. And whatever else you want to call it. This is basically what the story's been leading up to, so I'm just a _little bit _nervous about how this chapter will be received. Frankly I'm still dazed that I've actually gotten this far. BUT the story's not over yet, so I'll just shut up and keep writing.

Um, short chapter. And don't be surprised if it seems a bit anti-closure, because this is not the end. Next chapter is nice and long and I'll have it out fairly soon, as it's already written. ^_^ I love being ahead of myself.

Well, here's the chapter. Please be kind!

***

Chapter 21

Lost

The book slipped from my numb fingers. I let it fall and staggered back from the altar, hands pressed against my mouth to surpress a scream. I felt suddenly dizzy and terribly, terribly cold. My teeth chattered. I clenched my jaws tightly and turned from the book.

__

Mother.

The word whispered through my mind. I wanted to scream, but my throat had locked. I could not make a sound.

My left hand twitched, then moved. I stared at it, astonished. My body moved as though it had a mind of its own, kneeling on the floor, my hands unwrapping the linen bound around the calf of my right leg. Hidden beneath it was the dagger Rauru had given me. My left hand gripped the handle and drew it from its sheath.

I willed my body's movements to stop and failed. It was out of my control. I did not will myself to stand but did so anyway, gripping the dagger in a practiced manner. The entity controlling me bared my right palm and swiftly sliced across it with the sharp blade, opening a long, deep gash. Pain seared from the wound, but the dagger was transferred unhesitatingly to my injured hand. My right hand coolly sliced my left palm. Blood poured forth, vividly crimson.

I had never been so terrified in my life. _Stop it! _I screamed at my body, or perhaps the thing inside it. _What are you doing?!_

I am bleeding your essence from my body, answered the voice in my mind.

Terror seized at my heart. _It's my body! _I told the thing desperately. _It's my body, and you're just a nightmare!_

__

I am not, the voice replied, sounding amused. _I am your own creation._ It was a dark, hypnotic voice, obviously male. The truth dawned slowly on me as I listened, and it was horrifying.

__

Sheik, I whispered.

__

Mother, he replied, carrying my body to stand before the altar. He extended my hands so that the blood streaming from my wounds poured onto the altar. As soon as the scarlet liquid touched the smooth marble surface, it disappeared.

__

Your blood is absorbed into time's lost flow, Sheik said triumphantly. _With it goes your soul._

No! I screamed. _You cannot make me disappear! I won't go!_

Sweet mother. He traced the words lovingly across my mind._ You are a child of shadows. The blood of Sheikah runs in your veins. Why deny the part of you that belongs to shadow? It has already claimed you._

The pain in my hands was slowly fading, but this brought me no comfort. My vision was fading as well, blurring, darkening. A great silence pressed down on me, muffling the sounds of the outside world. My body was becoming his. I cried in despair.

__

I thank you for birthing me, mother, Sheik said gently. _The shadows will soon create our people anew in Hyrule. Through you, it has begun._

With an act of sudden, pure will, I tore my body away from the altar. He let me stagger to a corner of the temple, curl up with my knees drawn to my chest and cover my eyes with my bleeding hands.

__

Too late, mother. 

His voice was cold now, forbidding. I wept at the sound of it, all hope lost. I watched my world fade awar, my blood pouring from my body, dripping from my hair, mingling with the tears on my cheeks. And slowly blood ran into my unblinking eyes, until my tears were scarlet and my last glimpses of the world were tainted red.

Then finally, all became black, and I knew no more.

***

For a time she cried out, wept and struggled against me, but it was a battle already lost. My mother long ago sold herself to the shadows. She fell silent, then slowly her very soul seeped from her body like the blood streaming from her hands- my hands. She retreated deep inside herself, and was forever lost in the void.

Rauru, the light-bringer, my natural enemy, returned to the temple. He looked at me and his face turned stark white.

"Farore's mercy, Zelda, what have you done to yourself?"

I gazed at him through the blood in my eyes. "Zelda is no longer here," I remarked in my mother's voice. "My name is Sheik, and this body belongs to me."

His face grew even paler, if possible, and when he spoke it was in a rasped, frightened tone.

"Demon, be thy gone from the sacred body, in the name of Nayru, wisdom's lady. Demon, be thy gone from the sacred body, in the name of Nayru, wisdom's lady. Demon, by thy gone..."

He said this several times, but I could the despair in his face. He knew what I knew. Zelda was gone. She would never return.

***

Continued in Chapter 22.


	22. Guide

__

A note from the Hime no Argh herself-

Not much to say this time. Here's a new chapter, longer than the last. Oh, and the story's finished. ^_^ Not with this chapter, but for me, I mean. I finished it a couple of days ago. Not going to say how many chapters there are. You'll just have to wait and see. :P

Enjoy the chapter!

***

Chapter 22

Guide

My eyes closed, I floated despairingly in white fog. My mind was empty, a blank. Who was I? Where was I? I knew not. I was lost without salvation, a ghost drifting on the wind.

"Zelda."

I heard the voice but knew not who spoke, or to whom.

"Can you hear me, Zelda?" The voice echoed across the void.

My lashes fluttered. I peered from beneath them into the white void, then closed my eyelids again.

"Poor girl." The speaker suddenly sounded as though he were right beside me. His voice was youthful, gentle. I felt a soft touch on my cheek, like warm fingertips.

"I'm lost." It was a new voice. I wondered if it was my own.

Strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me against a warm, solid body. A soft kiss lighted upon my forehead. "Zelda," he whispered, and kissed my lips. Surprised, I opened my eyes.

I was in the arms of a beautiful man, dressed all in green, hair like spun gold, his body lithe and strong. He took his mouth from mine, pulling back to look at me, and I gazed into pure, clear eyes, a perfect sky blue. He looked to be about seventeen, my age.

My age? But who was I?

"You're Zelda, Princess of Hyrule," the man answered my thought, smiling at me. "You may not know it yet, but you will."

I looked at him, confused. "I know you," I said.

He nodded. "My name is Link. I'm your guide." He stood. How he stood on air in the middle of a white void I knew not. But he took my hands and pulled me to my feet, and it was as though I too stood on solid ground, though there was only white below me.

"This world can be what one wishes it to be," Link explained, as though he'd read my mind again. "It's a place that exists deep within the soul, where anything is possible and all things are forgotten. You've traveled a long way to come here." He took my hand again, his grip warm and reassuring, and smiled at me. "You needn't worry, though. I'm here to help you find yourself again."

"Who are you?" I whispered, wishing I could remember from where I knew him.

"Your guide," he repeated, gazing ahead of us. "Look. Here is the world through which we must travel."

I looked up and cried out in surprise. The white void was gone; around us was a vast, dark forest. Soft grass lay underfoot and great old trees stretched to the heavens, their branches crowned with dark leaves, glittering in the silver moonlight like thousands of emerald jewels. Fireflies glowed around us, like stars falling from the night sky.

"What is this place?" I gasped, awed by the beauty surrounding us.

"The Lost Woods." Link gazed about the forest with familiar affection. "Forgotten souls gather here to wander, enchanting visitors with the song of the Sage of Forest."

And indeed, from somewhere deep in the forest came notes of a lively, cheerful song, dancing on the wind. I felt the notes stir something in my heart. A feeling that was half pain, half pleasure rose in my chest. 

"It's so lovely," I said, my voice choked, drifting in the direction of the music as though my body had a mind of its own. 

Link grasped my hand to stop me and pulled me back to his side. "Don't run off yet, sweetheart. You and I have a ways to travel before you decide your fate."

My vision blurred with tears as I looked at him. "I'm tired, and it's so peaceful here. I just want to sleep."

Link touched my cheek gently, his eyes gazing into mine. "I know," he said quietly. "But this isn't the place for you. I'll help you see the truth. Just trust me for now."

And although I knew not who he was or why he seemed so familiar, or even who I was for that matter, I somehow knew I could trust him. It was a comforting thought. 

Link smiled at me. "This way," he said, and led me off through the trees. "Stay close by. I've searched a long way for you, Zelda. I don't want to lose you again."

"Why do you care so much what happens to me?" I asked curiously. "Who am I to you?"

Link took my hand as he walked, threading his fingers through mine. "You're my past and my future," he said quietly, turning his gaze to me. His eyes were very, very blue. "You're my reason for everything."

I stared at him, speechless, feeling gooseflesh rise on my arms.

"Even the goddesses don't mean half as much to me as you do."

I blinked and abruptly stopped walking. Link halted and cocked his head as he looked at me. "Something wrong?" he asked mildly.

"I remember something," I said slowly. "There was a temple, and it was blessed by the goddesses of the Triforce."

I blinked again, shocked. It was as though the words had simply poured out of me, and yet I had no idea what they meant.

Link smiled mysteriously. "Come on, Zelda. Miles to go."

I followed him again until we happened upon a pool of water in a clearing in the middle of the forest. Silver moonlight gleamed down upon the treeless clearing, illuminating the water and grass. Link went to the pool and knelt at its edge. 

"Here you'll see a woman named Impa," he told me. "She's someone you once knew. Have a look."

He beckoned to me, and obediently I walked to the edge of the pool and crouched, peering into dark, murky water. For a moment I saw nothing. Then Link passed his hand over the pool, and the water began to ripple, clearing until a scene appeared.

It was a great, cavernous room, with a large circle cut into the stone floor. Within the circle were carved many strange designs, pictures that seemed to crawl under my gaze. A shudder went up my spine as I looked. Around the circle stood dozens and dozens of flaming torches, flickering over the face of the woman who knelt in the middle of the circle.

This, I supposed, must be Impa. She was a middle-aged, solidly built woman, arms and legs well muscled. Her silver hair was tied back in a bun, revealing a serious face, lined with age and fear. Her eyes opened, and I gasped at the color- a vivid crimson, like fresh blood.

"What is she doing?" I whispered to Link, as though afraid of disturbing her.

"She's praying for you," Link replied quietly. "She fears she will never see you again, so she prays for your soul."

"For me?" I asked, dumbfounded. I could not banish the feeling that this woman, too, was somehow familiar to me.

We watched Impa for a bit longer. Then Link stood. "Let's go, Zelda."

Obediently I stood, and after one last glance at the pool, followed Link. In silence we walked through the Lost Woods, tiptoeing carefully over gnarled roots and pushing through leafy branches. The silence of the forest pressed down on us. I was suddenly aware that there were no rustling sounds, no animal cries like one might normally hear in the woods. There was only the soft humming of the fireflies, barely audible over the drifting music.

I pressed close to Link, suddenly afraid. "It's too quiet here," I whispered as if trying to match the forest's silence. "And it's dark, too. I don't like this place."

"It's familiar though, isn't it?" Link remarked. I stared at him.

"I didn't-" I began, then stopped. Something else was coming to me.

"Link," I said, "I think I dreamed about a place like this. There was shadow all around me, and it was very quiet."

I looked at him expectantly, but Link smiled and said nothing. In silence, we walked on.

***

Before long, Link and I came upon another pool in another silvery, moonlit clearing. As before, he instructed me to look into the water, and a scene appeared below the smooth, glassy surface. In the middle of a great, round room stood an old man beside a pedestal, a body lying at his feet. The old man gazed up at a window through which golden sunlight streamed, lighting his face and the tears streaming from his eyes.

"Why is he weeping?" I demanded of Link, suddenly concerned for the old man.

"He's weeping for you," Link said, gazing into the water with unreadable eyes. 

I blinked. "He knows me, too?"

"Yes." Link smiled sadly. "Rauru, the Sage of Light, has never wept a single day in his life. He has always been childless, but now you, a daughter to him for seven years, have vanished. Never to return, he thinks. So he weeps."

I did not know what to say. Gazing quietly at the scene in the water, I looked closely at the body lying at Rauru's feet. The gleam of golden hair caught my eye, and I stumbled back with a gasp.

Link put his hands on my shoulders to steady me. "Don't be afraid," he said soothingly. "I'm not dead, only asleep. My body rests in the Temple of Time. I'm here in spirit."

I turned swiftly and caught hold of his wrists. I could feel his warmth and strength under my hands, his steady pulse against my fingertips. Link smiled at me, and I let go of him, suddenly light-headed.

"You _feel _real enough," I muttered, trying without success to catch my breath.

Link put his arms around me and pulled me against him, still smiling. "Of course I do, sweetheart." He brushed a strand of hair away from my face. "If I were just a ghost, I don't think you'd believe a word I say."

"I don't know what to believe," I admitted. "You tell me these things about my past life, but I don't remember any of it."

"It's difficult, isn't it?" Link asked sympathetically.

I nodded.

Link sighed and stepped back from me, holding my hands in his. "To tell you the truth, Zelda, I've only been muddling along and hoping I do this right. Bear with me for now, please. In the end, whatever happens will depend upon your strength of will." He smiled. "But I've no doubts about you."

I gazed into the depths of his eyes, and caught a glimpse of...something. My mind whirled. "Link," I said breathlessly, "how long have we known each other?"

"We've only ever spoken once," Link said ruefully. "But for seven years I've waited for my second chance."

__

Seven years... Before my eyes flashed an image of a young, golden-haired boy. An instant later, it was gone.

Link gazed at me levelly, and he knew.

"Seven years ago I met you," I whispered. "I've been waiting for you all this time."

Link nodded. Then he pulled me beneath the canopy of a willow tree, took me in his arms again and kissed me. And though I still knew not who I was, for the first time since my arrival in this strange forest I was content, because here at last was something I believed in.

***

Continued in Chapter 23.


	23. Decision

__

A note from the Hime no Argh herself-

SSJ Psycho Link: Don't you hate it when readers review not to comment on the chapter, but to berate you for not putting out the chapters fast enough for their liking?

Seriously, guys, I'm sorry if I'm just being stubborn and making you wait, but this is the way I planned to do it from the start and this is the way I'm going to keep doing it. This is a serial story, not a novel, and I'm not going to post all the chapters at once. A reader once told me that my strong point is suspense; my chapters are structured so that every chapter leaves you hanging, some with just a thread of suspense and some with full-blown cliffhangers. Well, the most important part of suspense in a story like this is the wait.

Was that a lecture? Damn. I apologize. I humble myself before you. I'm just tired of some people (not all people) berating me about a) the chapter length, and b) the wait in between chapters. I do have school and college plans and things like that to worry about. I will try to post again when I can, but please understand that I am _busy_ and I really don't want to post it all at once. Call me thick-headed, but I'd rather draw it out. I'm sure most of you would feel the same in this situation.

Anyway, this is a pretty long chapter, so I hope it'll tie you guys over for now. Before we get into it, I'd like to just say what a delight it is to finally be able to write a couple of chapters where Link and Zelda actually interact. Forgive me if this chapter is a bit melodramatic, I may have gotten carried away. It's been lots of fun writing with these two. I have Hayao Miyazaki to thank- without him and his manga _Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, _these two chapters would probably not exist. The inspiration came entirely from the third volume of his wonderful manga (if any of my readers have read _Nausicaa,_ I'm sure they know which part I'm talking about). Anyway, I've greatly enjoyed writing chapters 22 and 23 and I hope you all enjoy reading them.

***

Chapter 23

Decision

Another pool soon materialized before us, and I found myself halting in my tracks. A strange sort of chill crept up my spine. I suddenly sensed that I was near the end of my journey. How I felt about this, I wasn't sure.

After a moment or two, Link took me by the arm and led me forward, gently but firmly. "Don't hesitate now, Zelda. You've come this far."

He was right, I supposed. I knelt at the pool's edge and looked. The water began to ripple, and there appeared a bird's eye view of a vast land, rich and diverse, covered by forest, mountain, lake, river, desert, city, and field.

"Hyrule," Link said softly. "Your homeland." He touched the water with a forefinger and it began to ripple. "And these are Hyrule's secrets."

I stared at the water, wide-eyed, as a figure appeared beneath the surface. It was a very young girl with green hair and blue eyes, her smile enchanting. Plants of all species entwined themselves around her, and suddenly I perceived a word for her: Kokiri.

"This is Saria," Link told me. "A childhood friend of mine. She is the Sage of Forest."

Her face burned into my mind. Then the water rippled and she disappeared, only to be replaced by a much larger figure.

This creature was enormous, relatively; squat and big-bellied, with arms as thick as tree trunks. He was covered by tawny skin, hard as a rock. His scowl concealed the intelligence in his beetle-black eyes. I thought for a moment he was a demon, then another word came to me: Goron.

"Darunia," said Link. "The Sage of Fire. Your uncle by royalty and oath, and my sworn brother."

I watched as Darunia's wide mouth stretched in an enormous grin. Then he faded away.

A beautiful female took his place. She looked as though she had fish blood in her with her blue-tinged, almost transparent skin and the shimmery fins on her arms and legs. She was naked, modestly covering her womanly curves with her fins. Yet there was nothing modest in her dewy, blue-eyed gaze or the seductive pout on her perfect lips. A Zora.

"Ruto. Your cousin by royalty, and the Sage of Water."

I memorized her face before she, too, faded away. There appeared another woman, lithe and slim, wiry muscles defined under darkly tanned skin. Her ruby red hair was tied back and set with an elaborate jewel; a long nose and proud chin completed her features. In her hands were two curved, wicked blades. My newfound perception told me that she was a Gerudo_._

"She's Nabooru." I detected a wry note in Link's voice. "The Sage of Spirit. In my past I helped her steal a pair of silver gauntlets."

I looked at him reproachfully. "That's an immoral thing to do."

He laughed. "It was for a good cause. It was either her or Ganondorf."

I blinked. "Ganondorf?"

We stared at each other in silence. Then Link smiled. "Keep looking, Zelda. There's more to come."

I sighed and turned back to the pool. Nabooru was gone and Rauru, the old man who wept for me, was in her place.

"Rauru?" I asked, surprised. "He's one of Hyrule's secrets?"

Link smiled. "Indeed he is, and a well-preserved one. He's the Sage of Light."

I liked that title. "He's Hylian," I perceived.

Link said, "Just like you."

The water rippled, and the old man disappeared, replaced by another woman. I recognized her blood-red eyes immediately.

"It's Impa," I said.

Link nodded. "She's the Sage of Shadow."

I spoke the word that came to me, and it sent chills up my spine. "Sheikah."

I felt Link's hand on my shoulder. "Try not to hate them," he said gently. "They lead cursed lives."

I looked up at him and into his eyes, and grasped at the truth I saw there. "I know them, don't I? Sheikah, I mean."

"You birthed one," Link told me gravely. "Created one. He turned on you and consumed your body. It is he who is responsible for your loss of memory. He who made you forget yourself." The words rang in my ears, in my mind, and for a moment it seemed like I was speaking them, not him. I felt the world around me melting, falling away, reality's grip on me slipping. Then Link grasped my shoulders, and he and I, at least, were solid.

"Believe me now, Zelda," Link whispered to me. "Believe yourself, and look."

I turned. I looked into the water, now smooth and clear as glass. And a young woman looked back.

She looked...hollow. Like she were only a shell, and the real person inside, the core of her, was missing. Her eyes were deep and soulless, yet they were beautiful, the darkest blue I had ever seen, like the color of the sky at midnight. Her face was thin and gaunt, her features delicate, her skin perfectly smooth and so pale it was nearly translucent. Hair of the palest gold tumbled down her shoulders. 

I looked into her eyes, and there, deep inside, past the stars that lit her midnight gaze, was a reflection of myself. There, I found the truth.

She was me. I was her. My name was Zelda, Princess of Hyrule.

***

I opened my eyes and found myself in a very strange place. I stood on a smooth, flat surface floating in the middle of a night sky, where columns of water fell from nowhere and rose from nowhere, reflecting the delicate light of the stars. I stood in the center of my small plane, surrounded by six circular talismans etched into the material below my feet. I looked at them, and knew instantly that they were symbols of the Sages. This place was the Chamber of Sages, and it was in the Sacred Realm.

The fog was lifted from my mind. There was not a single truth I did not perceive. Thus, when a naked woman appeared before me, surrounded by a blue halo, I knew immediately that she was a goddess of the Triforce, the Goddess of Wisdom, and her name was Nayru.

__

"We meet again, Zelda." The goddess's lips did not move, yet her voice was everywhere- ringing in my ears, whispering in my mind, bellowing all around me. 

I remembered a dream from long ago. "You tried to warn me, once."

The goddess nodded. "_I did. Yet you were already entangled in your fate. Only the strong can change their path."_

"Does that mean that I cannot break away from this fate?" I demanded. "Fate confines me as a lost soul?"

Nayru tilted her head to one side and looked at me with piercingly blue eyes. I found I could not meet her gaze for very long. 

__

"You are already found, are you not? Link has done his job well."

"So you sent him," I said thoughtfully.

__

"No. He begged to go, when he felt your spirit wander by on the way to the void."

I looked at her, astonished. "Link begged to come and find me?"

__

"He had finally perceived how imperative you are to Hyrule's future."

I felt something close to pain pull at my heart. "I see."

Nayru sighed. _"He loves you dearly, but that is a mortal affair. We let him go for you only for Hyrule's sake, but made him understand that he is merely the guide. It is your shoulders on which your destiny rests, not his."_

"So I can break away from my fate," I concluded.

__

"You can indeed, but doing so depends on your strength of will. You are a grown woman, capable of making your own decisions, and your journey is not yet finished. What lies ahead is your choice."

"I know my choice," I said with certainty.

__

"Of course you do, child. In this place, things are as clear as glass. Yet mist seeps through the Lost Woods. Your heart is already clouded. The truth is not always so easy to perceive." Nayru smiled, painfully beautiful._ "Zelda Harkinian, Princess of Hyrule, choose as you will."_

***

When I opened my eyes again, a canopy of trees overhead blotted out the night sky. I lay in the grass in a clearing in the Lost Woods, and Link was leaning over me. I blinked and looked at him.

"That was strange," I remarked in a faraway voice.

"What happened?" Link asked curiously. I became aware that he was gripping my hand very tightly.

"I went to the Chamber of Sages and spoke to Nayru," I said.

"And you remember?"

"Everything," I said quietly.

"Good." Link stood and pulled me to my feet after him. I swayed a little on my feet, still reeling from all that had happened.

"Why am I here again?" I asked. "I thought it was all over."

"Not quite," Link said gently. He pointed to our right, to an endless stretch of trees, and two paths through the trees lay side by side, veering off into different directions. One obviously led further on into the Lost Woods, like a dark tunnel burrowing into the green, lit by the yellow glow of the fireflies. The other path led straight into white fog, so thick that it was impenetrable to the eye.

"This is the end of your journey, and these are your choices," Link said.

I looked at him, confused. "My choices?"

He nodded and pointed to the path on the right, the clear path. "This path leads deeper into the Lost Woods. Take it and you'll remain here forever, a soul drifting on the wind, never to feel fear or worry again." Link hesitated for a moment, then added softly, "Or anything."

I swallowed. "The other path?"

"It leads to your future," Link said quietly. "The path is covered in mist because the future is impenetrable to everyone, even the goddesses."

"But Nayru told me I'm imperative to Hyrule's future," I protested. "If I go back I'll save Hyrule, won't I?"

"You might," Link replied evenly. "Or you might not. You might be killed by Ganondorf. You might never even reclaim your body from the shadows. There are countless possibilities, none more likely than the other."

I met his eyes with my own, feeling my heart ache at his blue-eyed gaze. "And you?" I asked softly. "What happens to you when I make my choice?"

Link smiled gently. "When the goddesses allowed me to come for you, I swore that I wouldn't return without you. If you choose to stay, then so do I. If you go to face the future, so do I. Anywhere you go, I'll follow."

"Then we can be together in Hyrule," I said optimistically, but Link laid his hands on my shoulders, silencing me.

He said to me, "I won't remember this."

I stared at him. "You won't?"

"I won't remember anything from my time in the Sacred Realm. It will be just as though I've woken from a normal sleep." He sighed. "That's the way it has to be. If only I knew why."

"Then you won't remember me at all?" I whispered.

"I'll remember you from seven years ago, before I went to sleep," Link said earnestly. "Just not this." He paused, then went on hesitatingly, "And I won't…I might not remember…"

I hugged him tightly around the ribs, burying my face in his shoulder. "Don't say it. I couldn't bear to hear it."

Link wrapped his arms around me and held me close, stroking my hair gently. "Don't worry about that," he whispered. "I've loved you forever, Zelda. That will never change."

"Then let's just stay here," I pleaded. "Let's stay together."

Link was silent for several moments, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe. At last he said bitterly, "Wouldn't that be selfish of us."

I knew immediately that he was right. How could I leave Hyrule to destruction when there was still a chance, however small, that I might save it? There was simply no question.

I pushed away from Link. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "You're right, of course."

His smile broke my heart. "I wish to the goddesses that I wasn't."

"If there's no other way, there's no other way." I hesitated. "But I'll miss you."

Link touched my cheek, brushing a strand of hair away from my face. "It isn't goodbye," he said quietly. "We'll see each other again."

"Of course we will." I managed a smile. "And until then, I'll be brave."

Link smiled back at me. "I know you will."

I hesitated. "And, Link…I…"

He kissed my forehead. "I know. Go on, now. You mustn't hesitate."

He was right, of course. I met his eyes one more time, then turned and faced the mist swirling across the path to my future. 

"Goodbye, Link." I didn't wait for him to reply. I couldn't. I squared my shoulders, and walked through the fog into my future.

***

Continued in Chapter 24.


	24. Destiny

A note from the Hime no Argh herself- 

This is a very important chapter to me so I really appreciate all reviews, especially if you comment on something that affected you (if anything did). Please look for Chapter 25, it will be posted very soon. Thanks.

*           *            *

Chapter 24

Destiny

I found myself once again in the Chamber of Sages, facing Nayru, and as before all of my desires were crystal clear to me. In the presence of the goddess of wisdom, all truths were revealed.

_"So, Zelda, you have decided to return." The goddess's everywhere-voice was at once beautiful and horrible. "__This pleases me."_

"What became of Link?" I demanded.

Nayru smiled, plainly amused. _"Mortals. You only think one way." She gestured to my right, and I looked. A few feet from me Link knelt, eyes closed, bound head to foot in chains. I understood the significance of his bindings- they represented his spirit's imprisonment within the Sacred Realm._

_"He is soon to wake," Nayru said, __"yet he will remember nothing except the events that happened before he opened the door to the Sacred Realm. It is your responsibility to guide him, just as he once guided you."_

"I will do whatever is necessary to save Hyrule," I said with determination.

_"Good. Then you surely will not mind accepting my gift."_

I blinked. "Gift?"

_"You know, Zelda, we goddesses rarely make mistakes," Nayru said thoughtfully. __"When we do, the results can be catastrophic. We made a mistake the day Ganondorf took the Triforce of Power. We let him take it." Nayru smiled, and in that smile were tens of thousands of years of knowledge, the wisdom of the entire world. "__Now we shall reconcile that mistake. For seven years we have been preparing two mortal vessels capable of keeping the remaining pieces of the Triforce safe. And now, at last, these vessels are of age."_

"You mean Link and I," I said quietly.

_"Indeed," the goddess replied. __"You, Zelda, have been chosen to house the Triforce of Wisdom, while Link shall contain within him the Triforce of Courage."_

"Is this why you alone have chosen to speak with me?" I asked.

Nayru smiled. _"You are clever, Zelda of Hyrule. But there is so much you do not know. We the goddesses are all one. The Triforce is all one. And you and Link, and yes, even Ganondorf, shall all be one. It is all the same."_

"I...don't understand," I said, confused.

_"Of course not. Clever or not, you are only a mortal. But someday you will have all of the wisdom in the world." The goddess extended her hands to me, and when she spoke again it was in a great, bellowing voice that shook the heavens, like a thousand voices crying out in exaltation._

_"I, Nayru, goddess of wisdom, goddess of the Triforce, sister to the Three-Who-Are-One, hereby declare the destiny of Zelda, Princess of Hyrule, Sage of Time, and Keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom! Children of the covenant of Hyrule, hear my Truth!"_

Her words swirled around me, and before my unblinking eyes I saw a series of dazzling images, darting by so quickly that they were all a blur, yet each was crystal clear and burned into my memory. I saw each and every one of the infinite futures that could come to me and to Hyrule. I saw myself at the head of the sages, I the greatest of them all, armed with the wisdom of time and the patronage of Nayru. I saw Link in the arms of a golden woman, the great Farore, her courage carrying him beyond countless hardships and to the ultimate destiny that awaited him at the top of Ganondorf's tower. I saw Ganondorf himself surrounded by a red halo of power, shadowed by the terrible figure of Din, to whom he was forever bound.

It was all One. As the goddess-sisters were bound to each other, so were we, Ganondorf and Link and I. Together we created a balance of Courage and Wisdom and Power, of light and darkness and the unknown gray in between. We three would never die. Though our bodies might pass, our souls would endure on and on. For as long as there was Hyrule, we, Ganondorf and Link and I, would be there to balance it.

The light of Truth burned into my mind, never to be forgotten. And from that day forward, through all the years I lived, through all the hardships I faced, I never knew fear again.

*           *            *

When it was over at last, I found myself lying on the floor in the Temple of Time, wearing the costume of a Sheikah I knew so well. The sound of sobbing reached my ears. I slowly sat up, feeling no pain or vertigo, only the ecstatic feeling of one dazzled by Truth. I would see Truth for quite a long time. And what I saw now, in the mirror that lay propped against the wall of the temple, was Sheik.

He was crying. Knees drawn to his chest, face hidden, he wept. I crawled to the mirror and touched the smooth surface of glass, wishing that for just once in my life I could touch Sheik himself. Hold him as a mother should.

"Why are you weeping?" I asked him.

His shoulders were wracked with sobs. "Mother," he cried. "Why did you forsake me?"

"It is destiny," I told him. "You were never meant to be born. I was wrong to create you." I fell silent for several minutes, listening to him cry. "I'm sorry," I added softly at last.

"Weep, shadows. Weep for our people," he said just as softly, rocking back and forth. "Forgive me, shadows. I could not do it. I could not hold on."

I understood it then. Shadow had conceived him within me for the sole purpose of recreating the Sheikah race in Hyrule. I had birthed him, given my body over to him. And he in his turn had given it back.

"Because you love me," I said, feeling my heart break for him.

"You are my mother," he said, and began to weep again in earnest. "Am I a good son?" he cried between pain-wracked sobs. "Am I your beloved child?"

I closed my eyes to hold back tears of my own. "Of course you are," I whispered. "Don't weep, my dear one."

"I think I will have to go away now," he said softly.

"It was never meant to be," I said, and a few burning tears slipped from my eyes to course down my cheeks. 

"Will you forget me, Mother?"

"Never. I promise you that." I waited until he looked up at me, meeting my eyes with his scarlet ones, eyes I had created. "See the way I look now? Like a reflection of your own self? I'll keep this disguise. I need it. And I won't ever forget."

A ghost of a smile seemed to cross his face. "I'm glad of that, my sweet mother."

I smiled shakily at him. "Be at peace, my son."

He closed his eyes and faded slowly away, until I was sure that it was my own self reflected in the mirror. I let my hands rise to the linen around my head; I unbound my hair, let it fall upon my shoulders, and changed my eye-color back to its dark blue. I was myself once more.

I looked at my hands. Twin gashes sliced across them, still angry and red. It was going to take them a long time to heal, and I doubted the scars would ever fade completely. 

It didn't matter. They were the markings of my own child. I would carry them with pride.

A wave of dizziness hit me suddenly, and I almost swooned where I stood. I was exhausted, mentally and physically, but there was one last thing I had to do before I slept. I teetered to the center of the temple's circular hall, nearly stumbling several times, and halted at Link's side.

I looked at him sadly. Here he slept so peacefully, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, knowing nothing. He wouldn't remember, but I would never forget.

"Never, Link," I whispered, kneeling at his side. "I was lost, but you helped me find myself again. I'll never forget what you've done for me."

For a moment I imagined he smiled at me, and perhaps he really did. It was enough to content me. I lay down at his side, pressing against his warmth, and fell into the sleep of a lifetime.

*           *            *

Continued in Chapter 25.


	25. Beginning

*           *            *

Chapter 25

Beginning

Rauru came home to the temple and found me still sleeping. He knew before I even opened my eyes that I was myself again. When I woke, he wept and embarrassed us both, then hugged me as though I were his own child. I held him tightly, feeling his frail body trembling with exhaustion and relief. Poor Rauru. Beneath all the power of Light he was still an old man, after all.

"I'm sorry I frightened you," I told him empathetically, but he waved me off.

"I thought you'd be back," he said with a smile. "Or maybe I just hoped you would. In any case, I knew you were too strong to give in without a fight."

"Thank Link. It was all his doing."

"Was it, now?" Rauru scrutinized me carefully for a moment or two. "You've changed, little princess."

That made me smile. "What is a princess? Call me Zelda."

"Zelda," he said, staring at me with unblinking eyes. "I can sense the essence of the goddesses inside you. The wisdom of ages runs through your veins."

Slowly I reached a hand to him and gently laid my fingertips on his forehead. "Help me, Rauru," I whispered to him. "Your journey is almost finished, but mine is just beginning."

He grasped my hand and kissed the back of it. "I will serve you in any way I can."

It was the first and only time the Sage of Light and the Sage of Time spoke to each other. I am not even sure Rauru remembers it.

*           *            *

Somehow with my new powers I had acquired an innate perception of time, an inner sense that told me the true meaning of each and every second that past me by. And so I knew the significance of the day that followed the night I had returned to my own body. This day was exactly seven years to the date that Link had took the Master Sword from its pedestal, opening the door to the Sacred Realm, creating a new current in time.

After all that, however, it was only Rauru who knew the true significance of this day.

"Where are you going?" he wanted to know of me when I passed him in the temple's main hall, wearing Sheik's clothes and face.

"I want to see Impa. I think she is still in Kakariko Village, but I don't think she knows I am even alive."

Rauru sighed. "On any other day that would be the most important thing to do. But I think you will want to stay here today."

I looked at him. "Rauru?"

"It's Link's time," he said.

Of course. Seven years to the date on which everything had begun, and Link was finally ready.

"I'll stay."

So I did. I stayed and watched as Rauru was bathed in light and absorbed in the Sacred Realm. I waited, but he did not return. He never would. It was Link who came back, his spirit finally released, prepared at long last to fulfill his role as the Hero of Time.

I watched from the shadows, still playing the part of the Sheikah, as Link stirred, opened his eyes, and climbed to his feet. He would not know my true name, my true face, until the time was right. I was the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, made to hide my identity to ensure that Ganondorf never found the sacred relic inside of me. Even if that meant hiding from Link.

I emerged from the shadows without sound, but Link sensed me nonetheless. He turned to me, swiftly drawing the great sword of masters and pointing it at me. Our eyes met, for the first time, it seemed.

"Who are you?" he demanded of me.

I said to him, "My name is Sheik."

It was the stirring of a new current in time's river. Neither Hyrule nor I would ever again be the same. And my story had only just begun.

A Tale of Seven Years 

*           *            *

Dear readers,

Well, here I am, at the last chapter of _A Tale of Seven Years. Um, I'm honestly not sure what to think about that. It's been a long, long journey, and I know that deep down inside there was a part of me that never thought I'd be here. I'm going to share a secret to you- this is the first novel-length story, fanfiction or otherwise, that I've ever completed. The very first! It's quite a milestone for me. _

I started this ahead of time, just to let you all know. It was started two days after I finished the story and finished on the day I posted this last chapter. I started this early because don't want to forget what it's like to be done with this story, even though I'm not sure how I'm feeling right now.

Okay, first things first: acknowledgements/disclaimers. I have a few to make, mostly to people I don't know, so forgive me while I briefly ramble through those.

First I want to thank my friend Dan, who was my sort-of-beta and read all of the story even when he had loads of self-inflicted-schoolwork (silly Dan :P) to do. Thanks also to Dan and my friend Maggie for an interesting discussion and a dash of info on multiple personality disorders.

Acknowledgements are due to Marion Zimmer Bradley, whose book _The Mists of Avalon, which I highly recommend, was the main source of inspiration for the idea of Oneness. Even though I barely delved into this concept in the last two chapters, it was very helpful to me in tying together some loose ends._

I'd like to acknowledge Hayao Miyazaki and his manga series _Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds as the direct inspiration for Chapters 22-23. Readers, read __Nausicaa if you haven't because it's truly fantastic._

Finally, almost all acknowledgements and thanks are due to Shigeru Miyamoto and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Without that game this story would not exist. It's a beautiful world that Mr. Miyamoto has created, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels incredibly grateful to him for providing us with such wonderful inspiration.

So what else to talk about? Eh, I guess I should do a little bit of wrap-up discussion on the story itself. When I wrote Chapter 25, I planned on calling it Epilogue, but after a while I realized Beginning was a better title. Because yeah, sure, it's the ending of my story, but it's also the beginning of many more stories to come. This is why I couldn't even bring myself to write "The End" when it was all over. It just doesn't _feel_ like "the end" to me. But it is a tale of seven years, so I just repeated the title and there you go. I love how these things work themselves out.

When I began this story I was looking to just write what I had in my head, which is everything up to the climax, then write an ending and be done with it. Chapters 22-25 were inspired. By this point you all know my source for 22-23, but it was Chapter 24 with which I was the most satisfied. I think the muses were at work when I sat down and wrote that chapter, because it tied everything together so nice and neatly, and I guess the best thing was that it helped end the story with no "bad guys". Throughout the story Sheik is technically my villain, but I was able to end it with Zelda at peace with him, and that was good. Looking back on this story, I guess in the end it's about overcoming your demons, or at least learning to live with them. That's my interpretation, anyway. If you have a different one I'd love to hear it.

So I guess that's pretty much all I wanted to say. What's next from the Hime? Well, I'm considering a Final Fantasy X-ish serial centered on an original character. I've also been trying to develop a new Zelda serial but no luck so far. At some point I'd like to try co-authoring a story, if anyone is interested feel free to contact me.

Last but definitely not least, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone who read up to this point and everyone who will, especially those that reviewed along the way. I can't tell you how much your feedback was appreciated; without it I'd probably never have finished this story. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and thanks again for reading.

I hope everyone enjoyed _A Tale of Seven Years._

-Hime


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